PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
35 
DECEMBER 17, 1853. 
Dr. Ball, President, in the chair. 
The following donations were received :—A Treatise on the Educational Uses of 
Museums, by Professor E. Forbes, from the author; and a Treatise on the Propa¬ 
gation of Salmon and other Fish, by E. and T. Ashworth, Esqrs., from Mr. 
Ffennell, Inspecting Commissioner of Fisheries, and thanks ordered to be given to 
the Donors. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
DECEMBER 5, 1853. 
Edward Newman, Esq., President, in the chair. 
The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 
donors:—The “ Zoologist” for December; by the Editor. The “ Athenaeum” for 
November; by the Editor. The “Literary Gazette” for November; by the Edi¬ 
tor. The “Journal of the Society of Arts” for November; by the Society. The 
“ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,” 1853, parts 1 and 2 ; by the 
Society. “ On two new Species of Calanidae, with Observations on the Spermatic 
Tubes of Pontella and Diapotmus,” &c., by John Lubbock, Esq., F.Z.S. ; by the 
Author. “ On the Destructive Powers of Scolytus destructor and Cossus ligni- 
perda,” by Captain C. J. Cox; by the Author. A specimen of Plusia bractea ; 
by R. S. Edleston, Esq. Two specimens of a Sciaphila, greatly resembling S. 
Penziana, from Scotland; by John Scott, Esq., of Renfrew. An extract of a 
letter from Mr. Henry Doubleday, announed that if this Sciaphila, upon further 
examination, were proved to be a distinct species, he intended to describe it. 
R. G. Schofield, Esq., Glen Mohr Villa, Greenwich, and W. Groves, Esq., 12, 
Morden Place, Lewisham Road, were balloted for, and elected subscribers to the 
Society. 
The Secretary announced that the Council had determined to distribute the 
Society’s duplicate specimens of British Lepidopetra among the members. 
Mr. Westwood exhibited a piece of honey-comb, sent to him by a correspondent, 
in which the queen had laid drone-eggs in worker-cells, which had been enlarged 
for this purpose. 
Mr. Curtis exhibited some Hymenoptera and Diptera he had received from M. 
Leon Dufour and Signor Passerini, most of them valuable as typical specimens of 
species described in the “ Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France.” In 
the box, also, was Tryphon nigriceps, Gray., a species new to this country. It was 
bred by Mr. Foxcroft from cocoons of Trichiosoma lucorum, which he found in 
Wales. Mr. Curtis remarked that in 1828 he had bred Tryphon rufus from the 
cocoon of his Trichiosoma pratense, the larvae of which he found in a damp mea¬ 
dow, near Ambleside, in the previous year, on a plant he did not remember ; it cer¬ 
tainly was not whitethorn, but he thought a spiraea or some herbaceous plant. The 
Tryphon rufulus of Stephens is the male of T. rufus. These species, from the form 
of the petiole, belong decidedly to the genus Mesoleptus, which Gravenhorst hints 
at in his work; but the multitude of exceptions to the characters of the genera 
proposed in the systematic tables, show how imperfect the latter are, and how diffi¬ 
cult it is to study the Ichneumonidae. 
Mr. Stevens exhibited two specimens of the very rare British longicorn beetle, 
Pogonocherus fasciculatus, taken by Mr. Foxcroft, in the Black Forest, Perthshire, 
and the new Noctiluca from Scotland ; but being a female, he had not been able to 
determine the species with certainty. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited specimens of the scarce moth, Hyponomenta irrorellus, 
reared by Mr. W. Kirby, of Wandsworth, from larvae found feeding upon Euonymus 
Europaeus; and Mr. Stainton exhibited some of the cocoons. 
