THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
13 
John Edward Gray, Esq., Ph.D., Vice- 
President, in the Chair. 
Election. 
George Lewis, Esq., of 6, Kidbrooke 
Terrace, Blackbeath, was elected a Sub- 
scriber to the Society. 
Exhibitions. 
Petasia Nubeculosa . — Four specimens 
of this insect, recently taken at Rannoch, 
were exhibited on behalf of Mr. Foxcrol't. 
No further evidence was adduced about 
the “ little birds.” 
Deilephila Galii. — Mr.Syme exhibited 
two bred specimens of this insect which 
he had forced, one appearing March 
20th, and the other March 23rd. They 
were from some of the pupae he had 
obtained the previous autumn. His 
mode of treatment in forcing them was 
this : be kept them in damp moss, and 
from the 2Gth January he placed them 
every day in the fender, where they were 
subjected to a temperature of about 75°. 
Ancylocheira aurulenla . — A specimen 
of this North American beetle (one of 
the Buprestidce) was exhibited by Mr. 
Douglas : it had been found in a house 
at Forest Hill. 
A Binocular Microscope was exhibited 
by Mr. Lubbock : it was capable of being 
varied to suit the distance between the 
eyes of different individuals. 
C OMMUNICATIONS. 
A paper “ On the Scutellar Depression 
in certain Beetles,” by Mr. Newman, was 
read by the Secretary, and contributed 
not a little to the hilarity of the evening, 
all present being convulsed with laugh- 
ter. Mr. Newman confessed the subject 
was perfectly obscure to him, but hoped 
to elicit light upon the subject from 
others. 
A short notice “ On the Grooves in the 
Eyes of certain Beetles” was then 
brought before the Society by Mr. Wol- 
laston. Mr. Wollaston seemed to be of 
opinion that these grooves were intended 
for the antennae to rest in, when the 
insect was not using them. 
The Chairman announced that the 
next Meeting would take place on the 
4th of May, and the members then 
hurriedly adjourned to the tea-room, 
endeavouring to allay, by numerous cups 
of tea and coffee, the inordinate thirst 
which the heat and closeness of the room 
had occasioned. 
Some diversion was caused by a mi- 
croscopic photograph of the Empress 
Eugenie being handed round as an 
entomological dissection, and to see the 
grave, sedate face, of each learned Pro- 
fessor as applying his lens to his eye, and 
his highest discriminative powers to the 
subject, lie suddenly recognised the joke 
passed on him, and though inwardly 
bursting with laughter, endeavouring 
to preserve a due gravity and decorum, in 
the hopes thereby of being able to im- 
pose upon his neighbour, was very 
amusing to lookers-on. 
COLEOPTEEA. 
Thanks to the recent improvements (?) 
in agricultural science, it is difficult 
uow-a-days to find a genuine swamp, — 
one of those hearty, glorious, quaking 
morasses of bygone times, which our 
Anglo-Saxon forefathers delighted to 
cherish, and where many a rare species 
of the feathered tribes (since extermi- 
nated) used to dwell in peace. Degene- 
rate age indeed ! It is not sufficient that 
the modern Coleopterist can no longer 
turn out into the snipe grounds of Bel- 
gravia, and fill bis bottles with the deni- 
zens of the fens, but be cannot even 
calculate upon a bond, fide quagmire 
(such at those in Anglesey and the west 
of Ireland) within an honest day’s jour- 
ney from London, and so he has to con- 
tent himself with the monotonous corn- 
