ST Ce a ba tke PRE SOI n 4 OF At eR ES SES R eo Fat eee: Seis mer 2 Saucer atas fave eee ered ath te elf 5 Aalto NP HIE CBee Sinks Pe COR ts os Oe OPAL PE PRA RS Fe Te fra we THE TRANSACTIONS J/ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW SERIES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY BY C. ROWORTH AND SONS, BELL YARD, FLEET STREET. SOLD BY LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. ; 1852—1853. LONDON: PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH AND SONS, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR, OFFICERS. 1853. Epwarp Newman, Esq,, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &C. weceecceceeees President. W. W. Saunners, Esq., F.LAS., &C.s00cccccessccccccscese 2 VSI SPENGCES HSC, BsEU. ssi Cc Ceillcleloieisia/eleicialel oie/a\elaielejeielerely)s\nie Vice- Presidents. J. O. Westwoop, Esq., F.L.S., &c..... alaleteralaleievaiaisieielefeieicrs 5 Samvet Stevens, Esq., F.L.S, ..0-.ccccccccceccesccesens Lreasurer. J. W. DouGras, Haqees sscsce cece acceve stat eeeeereeeeee Vo is. 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Gd.—to members 2s. 6d. Part 8, 1854, two plates, 4s. Od.—to members 3s. Od. The Journal of Proceedings of the Society is bound up with the Parts of the Transactions ; it may also be obtained separately by members gratis, and by the public, price 1s. per sheet. Foreign Members and English Members and Subscribers resident more than fifteen miles from London, who have paid their Annual Subscription, are entitled to receive the Transactions without further payment. CONTENTS. PAGE Prifectstatet ie: SOCIEtV iy, su venice why dete. aft) si) = lhe ePimawa | outa we I PeAICeOMshcunransactons) «Wii cols /anennted S tii. stseues| aimee es ao Tv Explanation of the Plates . . . ag : : <) s+ o, Mile Additions to the Library from 1st «anwar, 1852, to 31st Saas HGS}. sou Gobel wee none eeu Sy at ol eet a arated Ths eon sa eR Additions to the Collections from 1st pes 1852, to 31st als ISS Wes Wig Wao : Sieh i ien chy Soke ene ute tae Lion, Teme NOY List of Members, bas ona, USA des cigs cis Les abner cts. bs RVI Journal of Proceedings from February, 1852, to January, 1854. . . 1 INTE gs ODay APA ghar: SE RAR re amram ee OUP a aan a SSRI MEMOIRS. J. Description of Doubledaya Viator, an apparently undescribed Sub-genus and Species of Coleoptera belonging to the Family Languriade. By Avam Wuirt, Esq., F.L.S. . . . . . 1 II. Note on the Pediculus Melitte of Kirsy. By F.Smirn, Esq. . 4 III. Descriptions of some new Species of Hemipterous Insects belong- ing to the Tribe Scutata. By W.S. Datuas, Esq. F.L.S. . 6 IV. Description of a new Species of the Genus Dinidor, belonging to the Hemiptera Scutata. By W.S. Datuas, Esq., F.L.S. . 18 V. Apparatus for destroying Mould on Insects by the Vapour of Spirits of Wine. Invented by M. Vicror Guitiant, Employé au Museum Royal de Turin. Communicated e Joun Curtis, Bigg Fela — ants. os : oo oe le VI. Descriptions of Five new ae of Batteries, of the . Family Pa- pilionide. By W.C. Hewitson, Esq. . . . . . « « 22 vi CONTENTS. PAGE VII. Descriptions of undescribed Coleoptera, brought from China by MITT, IX. XI. XII. XIII. TV, XY. AVL: VLE: XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. R. Fortune, Esq. By W. Witson Saunpers, Esq.;- BES. &e. 4). 4 = 25 Descriptions of some new av ‘apparently didessritied Aone nopterous Insects, from North China, collected y R. For- TUNE, Esq. By F. Smitu, Esq. . . . . 33 Descriptions of some Hymenopterous Insects far Neuer India. By F. Situ, Esq. . 5 45 . On the Habits of the Species of the Chleoperens ree ‘Megs: cephala, inhabiting the Amazonian Region of South America. By H. W. Bares, Esq.; with a Synopsis of the Species, by J. O. Westwoop, Esq., F.L.S. . . . . Ho 9a a On the Lamellicorn Beetles, which possess exserted Mandibles and Labrum, and 10-jointed Antenne ; being a Supplement to a Memoir published in the Fourth Volosnte of the Trans- actions of the Entomological Society. By J. O. West- woop, Esq. F.L.S. . . . 59 Contributions to the Natural Fidtory of British Deicpolepido- ptera. By J. W. Doveuas, Esq. . . . 75 Notes on the Development of Osmia parietina and “athlon British Insects. By F.Smitu, Esq. . . . 5 tell Descriptions of some new Species of the Coleonierane Family Pausside, with a Synopsis of the Family. By J. O. Wesrt- Woon, Esq... Fics 2) 185, pl. 93, f. 1. Paussus cornutus, Chevrolat in Guérin, Mag. Zool. Ins. pl. 49. Africa Tropic. Occid. 69. (38.) Paussus cilipes, Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 185, pl. 93, f. 3. Sierra Leona. 70. (39.) Paussus A’thiops, Blanchard in Régne Animal, ed. Cro- chard, Ins. pl. 61, f. 8; Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 186, pl. 93, f. 6. Nubia. 71. (40.) Paussus verticalis, Reiche in Append. Voy. Abyssinie de Galinier, p. 390, Zool. pl. 24, f. 5, 5a. Abyssinia. 72. (41.) Paussus dentifrons (Dej.), Westw. Trans, Linn. Soc. 16, 96 84. Mr. J.O. Westwood’s Descriptions of the Pausside. p- 662, pl. 33, f. 68—70; Arc. Ent. 2, p. 186, pl. 93, f. 4. Senegal. . (42.) Paussus curvicornis, Chevrolat in Silberm. Rev. Ent. 4, p- 263; Guérin, Icon. Régne An. Ins. pl. 40, f. 8; Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 187, pl. 93, f. 5. Paussus cornutus, var. Chevrolat,in Guérin, Mag. Zool. No. 49, fig. la, 2, 2a. Senegal. . (43.) Paussus spinicoxis, Westw. Proc. Linn. Soc. June 19, 1849. Natal. . (44.) Paussus cultratus, Westw. Proc. Linn. Soc. June 19, 1849. Natal. . (45.) Paussus setosus, Westw. Proc. Linn. Soc. June 19, 1849. Guinea. . (46.) Paussus levifrons (Dej.), Westw. Trans. Linn. Soc. 16, p- 661, pl. 33, fig. 65—67; Arc. Ent. 2, p. 187, pl. 92, f. 4. Senegal. . (47.) Paussus Shuckardii, Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 187, pl. 92, f. 5. Africa Austral. . (48.) Paussus lineatus, Thunberg, Act. Holm. 1781, p. 171, pl. 3, f. 4, 5; Fabricius, Syst. Eleuth. 2,75; Westw. Trans. Linn. Soc. 16, p. 647; Arc. Ent. 2; p. 188; pl. 94, f. 1. Cap. Bon. Spei. . (49.) Paussus affinis, Westw. Trans. Linn. Soc. 16, p. 646, pl. 33, f. 36, 37; Arc. Ent. 2, p. 188, pl. 94, f. 2. ——? . (50.) Paussus Faviert, Léon Fairmaire in Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 ser. t. 10 (1852), p. 76, pl. 3, f.4. Tangier. Subsect. b. Species Asiaticze. . (51.) Paussus cognatus, Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 189, pl. 94, f. 3. India Orient. . (52.) Paussus Hearseianus, Westw. Proc. Linn. Soc. April 19, 1842; Boys in Journ. Asiatic. Soc. Bengal, N.S. No. 54, p. 422 (No. 31), tab. ann. f. 3; Westw. Arc. Ent. 2, p. 189, pl. 94, f. 4. Ind. Orient. (53.) Paussus Hardnicki, Westw. Trans. Linn. Soc. 16, p. 649, pl. 33, fig. 39, 40; Arc. Ent. 2, p. 189, pl. 94,45; Eoys in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, N.S. No. 54, p. 4:34 (No. 8), and tab. ann. f. 8. Nepaul, Almorich. . (54,) Paussus Saundersii, Westw.; Arc. Ent. 2, p. 190, pl. 94; f. 6. India Orient. Cer Qe) XV. On the Identification of the yet undetermined Species of Microlepidoptera, mentioned in the ‘“ Mémoires” of Réaumur. By J. W. Dovauas, Esa. [Read 4th October, 1852.) Tue Memoirs of Réaumur and De Geer contain a fund of useful information respecting the food, times of appearance, and habits of insects, but as in neither work the species bear scientific names, an unassisted reader is rather doubtful what particular species are alluded to. The determination of such species of Tineid@é as our present knowledge enables us to make will therefore be interest- ing to the Micro-Lepidopterist of the present day, though many species will still remain unrecognized. The progress that has been made in the investigation of these small tribes, since the publication in the “ Isis,” 1838, of Zeller’s elaborate review of the Lepidoptera mentioned by Réaumur, en- ables us to correct many errors into which he fell from the then deficient state of knowledge. In order to make fully intelligible the following notes on Réau- mur’s observations on Lepidopterous larve mining in leaves of plants, it was necessary to translate the whole of those which occur in his first memoir of the third volume. The accuracy of these notices, and the fact that they are nearly unknown to English collectors, would be additional reasons, if any were required, for occupying therewith so much valuable space. Special reasons are given, in some instances, for coming to a conclusion different from that at which Zeller arrived, in 1838. Zeller’s Memoir was the result of an offer by the ‘Isis von Oken” of a prize for the best discriminative essay on the subject of the Lepidopterous insects in Réaumur’s works; of those sub- mitted in competition, it obtained the first place; and it is very desirable to follow up, from time to time, as our knowledge in- creases, a work so well begun. The idea of so doing is due to Mr. Stainton, who also has fur- nished rough notes of the following matter, which his present avocations have not left time for him to put into form, a work I have endeavoured to do, at his request, adding here and there a few remarks. Réavumur, Vol. 3, Mem. I. On tue LARvV# WHICH MINE IN THE LEAVEs oF PLants. * Of all kinds of caterpillars which live in the interior of some VOL. Il. N. S. PART IV.—MARCH, 1853. H 98 Mr, J. W. Douglas on the parts of plants, the smallest are those which find sufficient accom- modation in the interior of leaves, and even in the thinnest. These insects insinuate themselves and form paths between the upper and under skins of the leaves, where they are well sheltered ; they mine in the fleshy substance of the leaf and loosen the paren- chyma; no rubbish from the space that they enlarge inconve- niences them; they eat all that they loosen, and so their labour answers two purposes; for at the same time that they are en- larging their habitation they are procuring their food. ‘*The insects which mine in leaves, though small, are easily found. One needs only to see the outside of a leaf, to know whether there is a mining larva within; though green and healthy every where else, itis dried up, yellowish, whitish, or at least of a different hue from the rest, at the places which the insect occu- pies, or has inhabited. The form of these mined places shows us that these insects have three different ways of conducting their labours in the interior of leaves. Some form only narrow, long, and tortuous galleries, the forms of which are extremely irre- gular; others, wishing to have more room, mine irregular, ob- long, larger places; and others, which when young have mined in galleries, when full grown mine in large patches.” Note.—Those larve living in galleries are all, as far as we are at present informed, of the genus Nepticula; possibly T'rifurcula also mines in galleries, but that is not yet ascertained, no species of the latter genus having been bred. The gallery of a Nepticula may, I believe, be always distinguished from that of a Dipterous larva by the excrement forming an uninterrupted line; in the galleries mined by Dipterous larvae, the excrement is scattered here and there, as may be easily seen in the leaves of buttercup, holly, honeysuckle, meadowsweet, &c. &c. ‘“‘ Although the class of insects which mine in leaves has as yet (1737) been little observed, it already includes a great number of species. There are few trees or plants, if there are any, that are not attacked by some mining larva. There are even miners of different species in the leaves of the same plant or tree; and we see not only the different leaves of an apple tree, but even one leaf of the same tree, mined both in galleries and blotches. Pro- bably the same tree furnishes food to gallery-miners and blotch- miners of several species.” Note.—I have in one apple leaf observed several larvae of each of the three species, Lithocolletis Pomifoliella, Cemiostoma scitella and Nepticula ......? “Tt is sometimes difficult to perceive in what these species of such small insects differ from each other; besides, it is not cer- Identification of Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. 99 tain that the insects that mine in the leaves of different plants are always those of different species. Yet, as miners of different species and different genera feed in the same leaf, it is very pro- bable that there are as many or more species of insects mining in leaves, as there are species of trees and plants.” Note.—It is true that this is not certain, but excepting in the ease of closely allied plants, the probability is that each species of plant nourishes a different species of moth. “The greater part of these mining larve live entirely alone ; each gallery and blotched place being the habitation of only a single larva, which has no communication with those of other in- sects of the same or different species, though made in the same leaf. There are, however, leaf miners, which having passed a large portion of their life in solitude, meet when the period of their metamorphosis approaches. After living till then in narrow galleries, they wish for more spacious dwellings, and mine to- gether in blotches. It is not difficult to find oak leaves, before the end of spring, in which are several narrow and tortuous gal- leries, which all converge and terminate in a whitish blotch, which is sometimes half as large as the leaf (Coriscium substriga). The upper epidermis of this leaf has been loosened by several little caterpillars, for which it forms a closed tent, under which they eat the fleshy substance of the leaf without fear of interruption ; at first they had each lived separately in narrow paths. There are also miners which from their birth are in companies of twenty or thirty in the same blotch, which they enlarge daily as they feed. Such societies are found in the leaves of lilac (Gra- cillaria Syringella) ; the caterpillars are white and smooth; they have six true legs, but no prolegs; their anal segment helps them to walk, and serves as a seventh leg.” Note.—It is only when young that the larve of Gracillaria Syringella have no prolegs; when fully grown, they have fourteen legs, as other larvee of the genus. ** Among the mining caterpillars, it is easy to recognise the cha- racters of two different classes; there are some with sixteen legs ; others have only fourteen legs, having only six ventral prolegs ; the first pair of prolegs is only separated from the last pair of true legs by two segments without legs. Probably there are several other classes. “ Among the mining larvee, some, except in size, are very similar to ordinary smooth caterpillars; but others have the seg- ments more marked, more indented than those of ordinary cater- pillars ; the bodies of some, and especially the posterior portion, seem composed of beads, threaded like those of necklaces. The H2 100 Mr, J. W. Douglas on the anterior segments are more flattened; the second or third is the broadest of all; hence it follows that the anterior portion of the body forms a kind of isosceles triangle. The second segment of some seems widened by two appendages, portions of spheres that have been added on each side; this may be observed in the larva which mines the leaves of the rose in blotches. But what appears most remarkable is, that one seems to perceive on each of those parts that extends beyond the others a fissure which can only be a stigma or organ of respiration; thus these stigmata are placed much nearer the middle of the back than in ordinary caterpillars.” Note.—The breadth of the second and third segment is very striking in most of the larve of the genus Lithocolletis. Note.—The larva which mines the leaves of the rose in blotches is unknown to me. Coleophora Lusciniepennella, it is true, makes blotches on the leaves, but so accurate an observer as Réaumur would never have mistaken a Coleophora for a miner; and it is remarkable that he repeatedly mentions this rose miner, and in one place states that there are no shrubs on which blotch miners are more common than the roses; this larva was an incognita to Zeller, in 1838, and still remains lost to us. Whether the species be really extinct, or only wants looking for, time must prove. But although we do not know this species, I think we know what is intended by the widening of the anterior segments by an ap- pendage like a portion of a sphere, for in a larva mining the leaves of black thorn, the black head deeply set into and working up under the wide and pale next segment, imparts thereto its own colour, and makes the rounded sides of this segment, which pro- ject beyond the sides of the inserted head, look like semi-spherical appendages. ‘‘ All these mining larvee have a tender, transparent, and smooth skin, but all are not of the same colour; the greater part, how- ever, are whitish, or greenish white; some are of a pale flesh colour, and others of a deeper flesh colour, approaching to red. ‘There are also a great many species which are of a beautiful yellow, resembling the colour of amber: this is the colour of the blotch miners of the apple tree (no doubt Lithocolletis Pomifoliella, the colour well agrees) and also of the gallery-miners in the leaves of the bramble (Nepticula aurella). A blotch miner of rose- leaves, already mentioned, is of a greyish olive. Commonly, these colours are not clouded, varied and combined by spots and rays as are those of many caterpillars which feed on leaves. However, we find in the leaves of the goose-foot and orach a larva mining in blotches, which, if as large as common caterpillars, might be Identification of Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. 101 put among the well-coloured ones. The ground colour is a yel- lowish white, but all along the back is a reddish-brown stripe, and on each side are two rows of spots, redder than the dorsal stripe, and well defined, one spot being placed directly above the other on each segment.” Note.—Gelechia neviferella is here alluded to, and not G. Her- mannella, as Zeller, in 1838, had imagined. Hermannella makes a green blotch, afterwards becoming yellowish, but neviferedla an extremely white and transparent one; the description of the Jarva agrees well with that of neviferella, but not, as Zeller had remarked, with that of G. Hermannella. “The place at which a gallery miner (just emerged from the eg@) has entered a leaf is easy to recognize; it is so narrow as to be hardly as wide as the finest thread; but the path gradually widens, and at the other end is nearly as wide as a narrow riband ; for by degrees, as the miner excavates and opens out a road be- fore him, he eats and grows, the diameter of his body increases, and requires a wider habitation. If we take a leaf mined in this way, and hold it up to a light, or better still, to the sun, such places being transparent, we shall not fail to see the insect, if in- deed it has not already quitted the Jeaf; and its head will be always at the broadest end of the gallery. In the entire space which it has previously inhabited (Neplicula), we observe little black grains, which are nothing but the excrement it has made on its road. These grains are placed in a row behind one another, but in the wider galleries there are several rows placed side by side. In the leaves mined in blotches, the excrements are all col- lected in a little heap; some species place them in the centre of the mined place, and others in a corner. “If, when we examine the mining larva, it happens to be’ at work, we shall see it seize between its teeth, as between pincers, and detach the parenchyma of the leaf; or at least we shall perceive that a part of the leaf previously opaque has be- come transparent, because the fleshy portion has passed into the body of the insect. The two jaws, which form a point in front of the head, are well fitted to open a road in the substance of the leaf and to seize minute portions. One can very easily observe the blotch miner of the rose, while excavating in the thickness of the leaf(?) We observe still more easily that of the goosefoot, or orach, because in the places which it mines it only leaves a white and very fine skin (G; neviferella). *‘The labours of the blotch miners, roughly considered, seem to have in them nothing more singular than those of the gallery miners, except that whereas the latter always mine before them, 102 Mr. J. W. Douglas on the and advance as they mine, the former mine all round the place they inhabit; this place is marked on the leaf by a white or yel- lowish blotch, being in fact the portion of the leaf that has been de- tached. Had this portion been simply loosened, it should be every where even and smooth, as when it was attached; consequently, it appeared to me very singular, when for the first time I observed on a portion of the membrane of an oak leaf a ridge (arréte) pro- jecting above, which went from one end of the mined place to the end diametrically opposite. It was at first natural to suppose that this ridge was nothing but a large fibre loosened from the leaf; but its direction and figure destroyed this idea, and showed that it was not a fibre of the plant. I have since constantly observed this ridge on all portions of the epidermis which had been sepa- rated from the parenchyma of the oak leaves by certain species of miners, and I was puzzled how it could be produced, till I ob- served the mined blotches in apple and elm leaves. These mined places showed me why the loosened epidermis of certain oak leaves has a ridge, what is the use of this ridge, and how it may be formed. The elm leaf miners (Lithocolletis Schreberella) are of the largest insects of this kind, yet the space included between two parallel fibres which start from the mid rib bound the space in which each excavates and feeds; these fibres are for it two chains of mountains, which stop it on each side ; hence it makes its abode longer than broad, somewhat oblong. It is the lower epidermis of the leaf which it first loosens, and it afterwards eats all the pulp that is between this and the upper epidermis. In- stead of one ridge, such as I had seen on the oak leaves, I have often seen two or three, and sometimes more, on the loosened epidermis of an elm leaf. The structure of each of these was easier to recognize than that of those of the oak; it was evident that each was only a fold of the epidermis, and that the summit of the fold which rose above the rest formed the ridge in question; this was shown in tracing each ridge from one end to the other, because towards one end were seen the two portions of the epi- dermis which began to curve towards each other, and a little further they were almost contiguous, whence it was easy to judge that in the rest of their extent they were applied exactly one against the other. “ The effect produced by these folds of the membrane is evi- dent, they contract it, and consequently force the fibres to which it is attached to approach each other; the opposite membrane on which the substance of the leaf rests is also thereby compelled to curve and become convex on the outside of the leaf. The advan- tage to the insect is apparent; it obtains a tenement of greater Identification of Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. 103 height, it forms a cavity proportioned to its size, and the move- ments it has to make; the membrane no longer rests on its body, as it otherwise continually would, and it has no longer so many rubbings to fear. «‘ Nothing is more confirmatory of the idea that this is the true use of the folds in the epidermis of the leaf, than the form that our blotch miners cause the apple leaves in which they reside to assume. Above the places where they reside we observe folds similar to those of the elm, but often there are more; on the loosened side of the epidermis, which is here generally the upper (Lithocolletis Corylifoliella?) two parts of the leaf, which in their natural position were seven or eight lines asunder, are sometimes brought so close together as almost to touch: there the folds of the epidermis have been so multiplied, so squeezed together, that it only retains a small portion of its first extent of surface, but the insect has thereby obtained a deeper cavity in which to live. The time when the miners of this species are most numerous, and when their labours on the apple leaves are most advanced, is when the latter are ready to fall, that is, towards the middle or end of October; if we then observe those leaves which more than others are folded along the principal nervure, or which appear folded in some other places, that part where the fold is most considerable is the abode of the insect. We often find two or three similar abodes on the same leaf. Some insects take up their quarters on the under side (Lithocolletis Pomifoliella), but these are few in number. At the same period we also find most in the elm leaves.” Note.—Réaumur apparently supposed that the larva mining the upper side of the apple leaf was the same as that mining the under side; the whole of our recent experience however shows us that the same species keeps constantly to the same side of the leaf, and consequently an upper side miner cannot be specifically identical with an under side miner. Iam not aware that the larva from the upper side of the apple leaf has yet been bred; it is probably identical with the larva of the upper side of the hawthorn Jeaf (Lithocolletis Corylifoliella, Haw.). Here it is not nearly so common as the larva of the under side of the leaf (L. Pomi- foliella). “ The three kinds of miners of which we have spoken—those of the oak, those of the elm, and those of the apple—are larve with fourteen legs, and which have only six ventral prolegs, so placed that between these and the anal prolegs are three segments without legs. The miners of the apple leaf are of a yellow, ap- proaching to amber; the miners of the cak leaf are white, slightly 104 Mr. J. W. Douglas on the tinted with greenish; the colour of the contents of their stomach and intestines may probably give this tint to their transparent skin. It would not be safe to decide that these three larve belong to the same or different species, if the insects into which they changed did not show it, and if we could not say that the mode of preparing for their metamorphosis is different. If in the month of October we remove the epidermis that has been folded by one of the apple leaf miners, we find a chrysalis which has not been enclosed in a cocoon. If at the same time we open the mined part of an oak leaf we also find a chrysalis, but enclosed in a small cocoon of fine white silk, to fortify which the larva has covered the exterior with its excrement.” Note.—It is not possible to identify with precision Réaumur’s oak miner ; the pupa of several species of Lithocolletis that feed on the oak is enclosed in a cocoon covered with excrement as he mentions: his figure of the imago would appear to indicate L Cramerella. “ Finally, if we open the mined part of the elm leaf we find a very small but pretty silky cocoon, which has on a small scale the form of the cocoon of the silkworm; it is however rather more elongated and more pointed. The colour of the silk of these cocoons is not of the ordinary colour, it is of a bluish-green.” Note.—Zeller had here suspected Lithocolletis Kleemannella, but the proofs are so strong for Schreberella that I have no hesi- tation in pronouncing that to be the species, the greenish-blue cocoon giving a climax to this supposition. “ Among the miners of which we speak some go into pupa in June or July, and it was only to point out the time when most are to be found, that we said they should be looked for towards the end of October; when the leaves fall, the chrysalides which are in the leaves fall with them. Those which are enclosed in cocoons are at least in some degree sheltered, when the leaf decays; I know not wivether the others are able to resist moisture, or whe- ther many do not perish during the winter. “IT have omitted to seek for the moth of a miner of the leaves of the pear, which is not so frequent as the miner of the apple leaves. It folds, like the latter, the epidermis which it has loosened; it has also fourteen legs, but it is greenish white, whereas the miner of the apple tree is yellow.” Note.—It is probable that a pear tree miner would not differ from the miner of an apple tree; probably in this case Réaumur alludes to the upper side miner, his yellow larve being the under side miner. “But at the beginning of spring I had the moth from a cater- Identification of Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. 105 pillar which mines in blotches the leaves of the nut, and which makes a ridge on the epidermis of the mined part. This moth may vie with all others in beauty, its anterior wings are streaked transversely with clouded gold and shining silver; on each wing are six or seven gold stripes, and four or five silvery.” Note.—As the larva of Lithocolletis Coryli, Nicelli, mines the upper side of the nut leaf in blotches, and the larvee of LZ. Nicellit, the underside, and Réaumur does not mention on which side his larva fed, it would have been impossible to identify the species but for his description of the perfect insect, which, though none of the best, sufficiently points to Nicellii in preference to Coryli to indi- cate that as the species. In other cases I have omitted to refer to his descriptions of the perfect insects, as in few instances are the species recognizable. The descriptions were probably made, as Zeller has suggested, from specimens which had been allowed to die in boxes, and afterwards injured in pinning. «Since these mining larve are able to spin, as they make cocoons, we need no longer wonder how they can form those kinds of ridges, those folds of the epidermis, which they have loosened, and under which they lodge. We have elsewhere (Vol. II. Mem. V.) seen the proceedings of the larve which roll and fold leaves by means of thread, which they place in different di- rections, and then load with the weight of their body; let us suppose a similar industry in these miners, and this is all that is necessary on their part to cause the loosened membrane to assume these folds. It is true that in these folds, among those which only form a simple ridge on the leaves of the oak, the parts approximate far more closely than when leaves themselves are folded, but then our mining insects have to deal with a mem- brane incomparably finer and thinner than a leaf. They spin webs on the interior portion of their cavity, and it is these webs which force the membrane to bend. Their webs are so fine and close that I should not have recognized them had I not known that our insects must have made them.” ‘¢ All the miners which mine in blotches do not, however, form folds in the membrane which covers them. M. Vallisnieri has mentioned a larva which mines galleries in the rose leaves of our gardens.” Note.—The gallery miner of the rose leaves in our gardens is a Nepticula, but unfortunately for deciding on the specific name, it happens that two species feed in the rose leaves. However, that which seems the most common is Nepticula anomalella; these larvee, when full grown, emerge from their galleries, and generally form their yellowish-brown cocoons at the base of the footstalk of the 106 Mr. J. W. Douglas on the leaf, a fact first observed, or at least made known at one of our meetings, by Mr. Westwood. Where the cocoons of other species are placed is not yet known. ** We also find on the same roses and on the dog rose blotch miners; indeed, there are no shrubs on which these miners are more common. ‘The membrane of the upper side only makes a little protuberance outwards. We also find on the holly, nut, oak, &c. great places mined and covered by the epidermis, which forms a convexity outside the leaf, without having a sensible ridge. “This epidermis, in drying, might easily become more stretched, but the shortening of its fibres cannot force it to assume a convex form; it is by spinning one or several very fine webs that the miner has obliged it to separate, and to keep apart from the por- tion of the leaf from which it has been loosened. These webs are, however, as already mentioned, hardly perceptible but by the effects they produce; but in order to convince myself that the in- sects do spin them in places where they may be necessary, I pierced with the point of a penknife the thin membrane that was above the mined place of a rose leaf, and made a small rent which allowed me to see the insect exposed. When I wished to ex- amine the same gap twenty-four hours afterwards, I found the edges reunited by a web which the miner had spun on the in- terior surface of the torn epidermis. I cut in the same way the membranes which covered the blotch miners of the apple, and they behaved in the same manner as the rose miner. “We may, however, assure ourselves without this experiment that the miners of the apple carpet with web the epidermis they have loosened; if we open their small abode it is best to do so on the thick side, and we see all the edges of the fleshy part, which is joined to the epidermis, are whitish, though at a short distance from these the fleshy part is quite green. The web which is spread over the epidermis goes a little beyond the place where it is joined thereto. “We only perceive the green of this fleshy part through a white veil spread over it. ‘‘ Besides the insects which form a ridge on the portion of the epidermis of the oak leaves which they have loosened, there are caterpillars, as we have just seen, and even of different kinds, which mine the same leaf, and which only cause the epidermis of the mined part to assume a slight convexity. If we observe at certain times the portion of the epidermis which has been raised by some larve, it seems to have in its middle a circle more opaque than the rest; this I have observed, more than at any other time, towards the end of July. If we raise this portion of Identification of Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. 07 the epidermis we shall see that this white circle does not belong to it; that opposite the place where it appeared is a little cocoon of white silk; it is nearly circular, and fastened to the leaf itself. Towards the 15th August small moths made their escape from these little cocoons (T%scheria complanella).” Note.—I have not yet bred this species, and no modern writer has given a detailed account of the mode of living of the larve and pupa; Ratzeburg, it is true, described and figured the larva, but he states that the larve ninter in the leaves, and makes no mention of the singular circular cocoon. Mr. Stainton once found such a cocoon in a leaf of Centaurea nigra at Mickleham, in August, but the tenant died, and he much doubts whether it was Lepidopterous. ‘** Karly in spring we may observe thousands of oak leaves, of which very large portions of the upper epidermis have been loosened ; that of more than half or three quarters of the leaf is raised, and forms very frequently a slight convexity; but these large mined places are also the work of several miners, which, after living in solitude during a portion of their life, have united to labour at the same work. If we look at the part of the leaf which is between the large mined place and the foot stalk, we shall see several narrow and tortuously mined galleries, which are the roads in which the insects have lived and grown, and which they have followed to arrive at a point where they should mine together on a large scale. If we, towards the beginning of June, remove the epidermis of the large mined place, the part of the leaf which we expose to view is very green, and sometimes very smooth; it does not appear that its substance has been eaten, neither do we see any excrements therein, but we immediately observe two, three, or four places, according to the size of the mined portion, which are raised and white. ‘They resemble small portions of, as it were, a second epidermis, which had been loosened, or places which had been mined a second time. These places are those where each little caterpillar has spun a cocoon so thin, and of so close a texture, that it appears only to be an epi- dermis of the leaf; it has, at any rate, the colour of it; but we can convince ourselves that this covering has been spun; for if we tear it we can distinguish the threads of which it is composed, and see that the texture does not at all resemble the epidermis of a leaf.” Note.—There seems little doubt that Corisctum substriga is the insect here alluded to, but, according to Mr. Sircom’s observa- tions, the larvee quit the leaves previous to spinning their white cocoons; whereas Réaumur describes them as spinning their 108 Mr. J. W. Douglas on Réaumur’s Microlepidoptera. cocoons beneath the epidermis of the leaf: as that is contrary to the rule in other species of the Gracillaria group, I am inclined to fancy some mistake. “The cleanliness of a miner which makes blotches on the leaves of the oak does not admit of our confounding it with many others. There is, however, nothing particular in its labour; the space which it mines is nearly circular; the epidermis which covers it has a slight convexity, without having a ridge. When not mining, it is very generally bent as a bow. If we remove the epidermis that covers it, we perceive no excrement in its abode; it has the precaution to make it outside its dwelling. In observing one of these larveze, I saw it walk backwards, till its anus was close to the edge of its abode; it even made it go beyond, for there was a little slit for it to go through, which the larva knew where to find, and it then ejected a little black grain, and immediately the larva retired into the middle of its dwelling. When I afterwards examined with a lens the places mined by the larve of this species, I recognized that they had all a little slit on the upper surface of the leaf. The excrement which they eject at this opening very frequently falls to the ground, being hard grains, which roll on a smooth surface. In vain did I examine this insect with a powerful glass, and in a strong light, I could find no legs even when it tried to walk. Its body is white, but the head and tail are brown; the anus is beneath, and has a wide border; the head is very flat; the jaws, which are the most marked parts of it, form a point where they meet. The exterior form of each is an arc, which seems a portion of a circle.” Note.—This “ clean miner,” as Réaumur called it, is very pro- bably Zischerta complanella: at any rate, a larva which corre- sponds to Réaumur’s account, and also to Ratzeburg’s observations of that species, makes blotches on the oak leaves in September and October. @ 10g) XVI. Descriptions of some Longicorn Beetles discovered in Northern China, by Ros. Fortunes, Esq. By W. Wixson Saunpers, Esq., F.L.S., /c. [Read 7th February, 1853.] Wuen I had the pleasure of laying before the Entomological Society, a short time since, a paper on the new species of Ceto- niade, found in China by R, Fortune, Esq., (ante, page 33,) I expressed an intention of giving descriptions of some more of this gentleman’s discoveries in the way of Entomology, and in furtherance of this object, I beg leave now to offer the following paper on Longicorn Beetles. It may not be out of place here to observe, that by the mail steamer in December last, Mr. Fortune left this country on his return to China, with the full intention of paying as much attention to the Entomology of the districts he _ might visit as his more important duties would permit. The result of his continued researches will, there is every reason to expect, greatly enrich our collections, and add many new facts to our Entomological knowledge, for he is now well prepared for collecting insects, and knows the wants of Entomologists, and has had his attention drawn to various points in the natural history of the insects of China which want clearing up, and which require particular observation. EvurypopA, n. g. (eipve rove.) Head broad, subquadrate, flattened above, with a shallow furrow between the eyes. Mandibles. exserted, incurved at the point, strong. Palpi short. Labrum fringed with hairs, yes large, reniform, surrounding the posterior portion of the base of the antennz. Antenne not quite equalling the length of the body, stout and cylindrical. First joint short, pyriform, slightly curved outwards; second very short, obconic; third long, sub- cylindrical, longer than the fourth and fifth combined; the remaining joints subequal, shorter than the fifth, gradually tapering ; the terminal joint the longest, somewhat curved and pointed. Thorax broader than the head ; quadrangular, flattened above, broader than long, with the sides smooth, and the posterior angles rounded. lytra rather broader than the thorax, with the sides parallel and rounded at the apex. Scutedlum sub-triangular, with the apex obtuse. Legs stout, the femora and tibie broad and flattened. TZarsi short. 110 Mr. W. W. Saunders’s This genus is a close ally to Mallodon, from which it differs in the respective lengths of the first and third joints of the antennez, the short, stout and flattened femora and tibiae, and in the sides of the thorax being free from serratures or roughness. Eurypoda antennata, mihi. (PI. IV. fig. 5.) Head, thorax and antenne dull brownish black, deeply and broadly punctate, the thorax having on the disk some slightly raised shining elevations. Elytra flat, bright castaneous, deeply punctate, with two well marked longitudinal ridges on the disk, and a third near the apex externally. Under side of the body bright castaneous, finely punctured, shining. Legs brownish black. ‘Tarsi castaneous; the joints fringed with yellow hairs. Length, 1 =, inch. Habitat North of China. In the collection of the British Museum. Puiwus, n. g. (Pédoe.) Head vertical, constricted behind the eyes, with the mandibles long and pointed, and the palpi long and exserted. Eyes very large and prominent, especially in the males, broadly reniform, surrounding the base of the antenne. Antenne in the ¢ longer than the body; in the ¢ about half as long as the body; 11- jointed ; in the ¢ with the first joint short, robust, second very minute, third and following joints subequal; the terminal joint longest and pointed ; in the 9, the third joint the longest. Thorax subcylindrical, in front narrower than the head, with the sides and disk without elevations. /ytra much broader than the thorax, with the shoulders prominent, gradually tapering towards the apex, and terminating in an obtuse point. Legs and tarsi mode- rate. Whole insect hairy. This genus should be placed somewhere near Erioderus, and not far from T’ragosoma, which appear to be its nearest allies. From the former, which it most resembles, it differs very essentially in the joints of the antennae—the third joint in Erioderus being very long—and in the general shape of the insect. Philus inconspicuus, mihi. (P1. 1V. fig. 3, 6; Pl. IV. fig. 4, 9.) Dull castaneous brown, covered with fine erect pubescence. Head and thorax finely punctate. Elytra with longitudinal striae, and deeply and broadly punctate. The ¢ is larger than the g, with the sides of the elytra more parallel. Length of g 9; inch; of 9 14/5 inch. Habitat North of China. In the collection of the British Museum. Descriptions of some Longicorn Beetles. 111 Catuicuroma, Latr. C. Faldermannii, mihi. (Pl. LV. fig. 7.) Head inclined, with the neck broad and short, bronzy green, rugose. Palpi prominent. Antenne black, with the seven termi- nal joints ferruginous. ‘Thorax subcylindrical, broader than long, with a raised anterior and posterior margin, spined at the sides, and with five rounded tubercles on the disk; purplish green, with the disk and sides castaneous, shining. Scutellum triangular, purplish green, shining. Elytra broader than the thorax, with the shoulders prominent, gradually tapering to an obtusely rounded apex, finely and rugosely punctate, with two longitudinal ridges, more apparent at the base ; bronzy green, with the centre of the disk browner; legs purplish black, shining, with the femora clavate, and the fore tibiz fringed with yellow hairs internally. Tarsi castaneous. Length 13 inch. Habitat North of China. In the collection of the British Museum. This species has some resemblance to the beautiful C. Cantori of Hope, but differs in many respects, particularly in the colour of the thorax and antenne. It also nearly approaches the C. Bungii, Fald., particularly the variety called cyanicornis of Dupt. Co.osus, Serv. C. sericeus, mihi. (Pl. IV. fig. 2.) The whole surface of the insect is covered with fine silky pu- bescence. Head vertical, with a very short neck ; dark chesnut brown, with the eyes and five or six terminal joints of the antennz black. Antenne nearly as long as the body; palpi exserted ; thorax rather broader than the head, orbicular, truncate before and behind, with a slight protuberance on each side, and four slight rounded elevations on the disk; above dark chesnut brown, margined anteriorly with black; below black. Scutellum small, triangular, black brown. LElytra broader than the thorax, not half the length of the body, ovate, pointed posteriorly, and with the suture gaping, and shoulders prominent; dark chesnut brown. Wings bright chesnut brown, voluminous, exserted considerably longer than the body. Abdomen and underside of body purplish black brown, with the pubescence on the basal joint of the former silvery on the underside. Legs long,—particularly the hinder pair, which have the femora and tibiz flattened,—bright chesnut brown, with the tarsi a little darker. 112 Mr. W. W. Saunders’s Length 1 inch. Habitat North of China. In the collection of the British Museum. A remarkable insect, nearly allied to an undescribed species from Silhet, which is in my collection, and which differs from it chiefly in the colouring of the underside of the abdomen. Crerosterna, Dj. C. hispida, mihi. (PI. IV. fig. 6.) The whole surface of the insect is covered with pubescence, in- terspersed with long, erect, rather distant bristles; colour dark purplish brown, mottled with black, with small white specks pretty generally and equally distributed among the black mottles. Head vertical, with a broad cylindrical neck. Eyes very narrow and elongate, black. Joints of antennz free from tufts of hair. Thorax a little broader than the head in front ; subcylindrical, armed on each side with an acutely pointed spine, and having on the disk an elevated mass of rounded tubercles. Scutellum small, trigonate. Elytra much broader than the thorax, with the shoul- ders very prominent; the sides nearly parallel; apex rounded. Legs long and stout. ‘The intermediate tibize toothed externally near the apex; fore tibiz slightly curved, and all fringed with short black hairs at the apex, on the front and posterior margins. Length 1 to 1 inch. Habitat Northern China. In the collection of the British Museum and other cabinets. This species comes close to the C. histriz, but differs in wanting tufts of hair on the antenne, which are much darker in colour, and in being hispid, not spiny. Gienea, Newman. Fortunei, mihi. (PI. 1V. fig. 1.) Head vertical, immersed up to the eyes in the thorax. Face yellow, with a central obsolete blackish heart-shaped mark, hairy ; forehead black. Antenneze black, with the apex of the third joint greenish yellow above. Thorax a little broader than the head, quite cylindrical, rather broader than long ; slightly carinated lon- gitudinally above ; greenish yellow, with two round black spots on the disk, one on each side of the raised line, covered with dis- tant fine erect black hairs. Scutellum trigonate, rounded behind, greenish yellow. Elytra much broader than the thorax, tapering to a rounded apex, with the shoulders prominent ; black, with a Descriptions of some Longicorn Beetles. 113 broad central greenish-yellow wavy band, and having a greenish- yellow spot on the apex and shoulder of each elytron partly covered with fine erect distinct black hairs. Under side of body greenish yellow, pubescent. Legs black, with greenish yellow undersides to femora and tibie, Tarsi greenish yellow above. Length 55, to 38 inch. Habitat North of China. In the collection of the British Museum. This pretty species varies considerably in the nature of its markings, being sometimes without the yellow green spots near the shoulder, and sometimes with the spots produced into a narrow transverse wavy band. XVII. Notes on the Habits of Various Insects, By Mr. WiuuiAmM VARNEY. [Read 2nd August, 1852.] Sting of Bee-—Hiser says, that “the sting by which this little animal defends itself is composed of three parts, the sheath and two darts. The sheath, which has a sharp point, makes the first impression. The sheath sometimes sticks so fast to the wound, that the insect is obliged to leave it behind ; and to the bee itself the mutilation proves fatal.” The sheath, however, makes no impression, and I have never found it to enter or make a wound ; it is large near the base, and gradually tapers to a point, and is quite smooth, and if it did make an incision the bee would be able to draw it back again without hurting itself. The barbs which do the mischief are very sharp; and when they penetrate, they hold fast to the wound like a fish-hook, and the bee is mostly unable to draw them out of the wound, always leaving the darts with the sheath; and it seems impossible to leave the sheath behind without the darts, as they are all rooted firmly together. I. know not whether, when thus mutilated, they die, or whether they are killed or driven away by the other bees. Moss-carder Humble Bees.—Respecting the humble bee, Réaumur says, that “ the community, which numbers from 20 to 300, consists of females of two sizes—the very largest and the small ones; males, which are stingless; and neuters. It is VOL, II. N. S. PART IV.— MARCH, 1853, I 114 Mr. W. Varney on the very probable that, alone and unattended, the female lays the foundation of the future little village. The nest is composed of a tuft of moss.” On asloping bank, near Hanwell Asylum, among the shrubs, I found one of these curious little nests; it consisted of a small lump of moss, one large bee, one cup filled with honey, and six small Jarvee of the bee feeding upona mass of pollen, of a darkish brown colour. I found another nest on the same bank, — about ten yards distant, which was a little larger than the first—as large as a hen’s egg; it consisted of a lump of moss, one large bee, one cup filled with honey, and six larvee feeding upon a mass of bee bread; and six cocoons, spun by the full-grown grubs of the bee. Each nest was founded by a large bee, the largest of the class. I think the small ones are not females, but workers only. Wasp-nests.—Réaumur says that “ the material from which the common wasp’s nest is constructed is vegetable fibre. As the first step in the process of paper-making is to soak the vegetable fibre in water, so the wasp takes as special care to select the filaments which it intends to use from wet wood, which has rotted in the rain.” In the summer of 1850, I saw a great many common wasps gathering wood from a post which was quite dry; each load which the wasp carried away was quite wet. This lasted many days ; and as I stood near, and paid attention, I could see how they acted. The wasp ran about the post a little, and as soon as it found a place suitable, it wetted the wood, then scraped a little bit together, and put it between its fore legs, then it scraped another bit and put it to the first, and so it went on, until it had got a load; it then worked it all together into a ball, took it between its mandibles, and flew away to its nest. I could see the wet upon the wood when the wasp had gone away. The wasp scrapes the wood very fine, which would all fly away in dry weather, if no fluid was used. The wasp, by wetting the wood, can gather a load with little trouble, and with no loss of labour. Mason Wasps.—On the south side of a brick wall, at Hanwell, I found a mason wasp at work, building a cell with mortar, which it finished in about anhour. It went seven times to some water, which was about twenty yards from the wall; with each supply of water it made two loads of mortar, very near the wall; when the cell was finished, the wasp laid an egg, and filled the cell with living food. JI then opened the cell, which contained eighteen larvee; they were not all of the same size, but each one had sixteen legs. I put them back into the cell, and closed them up. Another time, I broke down part of a cell when it was finished, Habits of Various Insects. 115 but the wasp mended it again in a short time. Another time, I took away six caterpillars, and put thema short distance from the cell; the wasp found them, and put them back into the cell. Again, I took away the egg of the wasp, and when the cell was finished I opened it, and found another egg in place of the one which I had taken away. When the wasp brought a caterpillar to its cell, it held it ina straight line, under its belly, carrying one end between its jaws. The caterpillars appeared dead, and were packed very close in the cell. The wasp slept in the cell at night, with its head out, and when the cell was nearly full, it remained with more than half its body out. I touched it several times, but it would not quit the cell. I then put an ant to it, which it crushed with its jaws. It made six cells in a week, and made mortar in one place the whole time, and continued to get water in another place; when it was making mortar the ants disturbed it several times, which made it fly up sometimes; at other times it would move a little, but it refused to leave the spot. I have never found these wasps to make a hole ina solid brick or stone, but when they find a cavity with loose rubbish in it, they will clean it out. These wasps are much smaller than the common social wasps, and are known by having a large black ring round the middle of the abdomen. They build cells in the cavities of walls. Wasps killing Flies.—The common wasps catch a great number of flies in the summer time; and when they find a spot well stocked with these insects they will go there a great many times, until itis exhausted. When a wasp catches a fly, it first cuts off its legs and wings; then bruises it into a mortar, and carries it away to the nest. Having caught a fly, I puta bit of string round the middle of it, and offered it to a wasp, which took hold of it, and cut off its wings and legs, as usual; then it took hold of it to carry it away, but finding it could not move it away, it pulled first one way, then the other; at last, it found out the string, which was very fine, and cut it off close to the fly, which it then carried away. Honey Bees.—I have observed that the honey bees gather honey from some flowers whilst they never touch others. They are very fond of the mignionette, but I have never seen the humble bees touch it. I have seen a great number of wild bees upon the snapdragon, the fox-glove, the everlasting peas, and the nasturtium, which the hive bees never touch. Both the hive bees and the wild bees are very partial to the Canterbury bells, from the cups of which they gather a great deal of pollen and honey. 12 116 Mr. W. Varney on the The scent of the blossoms of the Scabious is very much like honey; and upon this flower I have seen a great number of insects. At one time I saw a mason bee, several humble bees, various kinds of butterflies, some other flies, and several hive bees, upon the flowers of this plant. Bees fond of Water.—Réaumur, Hiber, and many other natu- ralists, have paid great attention to, and tried many experiments with the hive bees, but I do not find them to say any thing about water. I find these little creatures make use of a great deal of this fluid. In the summer time, in very dry weather, they may be seen drinking water between stones, and round about water-taps, and such like shallow places, immediately returning to the hive. They thus continued to get water every day in dry weather. I think they use it to moisten and prepare the wax: or perhaps they drink some of it, which remains to be ascertained. Leaf-cutter Bees—In the fine warm weather, having observed a rose-leaf-cutting bee cut a piece of leaf from the rose-tree, and carry it away and settle upon a wall, and go intoa cavity where it was building its nest, repeatedly performing the same operation, I watched it more carefully, and observed that when it settled, it would examine two or three leaves before it found one to suit its purpose ; it then settled upon a Jeaf, with its head towards the leaf stalk, and cut a piece out, which it did in a very short time. It held on to that part of the leaf which it was cutting out, and when it had cut it out it fell down, like a stone, for a short distance, before it took wing. When it had cut out the leaf it was not prepared for flight, and it always fell down like a stone before it took wing. One time, it fell on the ground with its load. It fell down several times among the leaves of the tree, and it found some difficulty in getting out with its load, which it held in a kind of half circle under its belly. I made a tube of bark, and put it in the wall ; it was about six inches long, and about one-third of an inch in diameter. ‘This was found in a few days by a rose-leaf cutting bee, in which it constructed a nest of rose-leaves. I split the tube before I put it in the wall, so that it could be opened without damaging the cells. Whenit was finished, I took it out of the wall, and found it contained eight cells, which were fitted together like thimbles. The tube was not full, it would have held several more cells ; but the entrance was blocked up with several pieces of leaf, which prevented any other insect from entering the nest. In cutting a leaf, it sometimes makes a mistake, and when it has cut it about half through, it will suddenly leave it and go to another, but this does not often occur. Habits of Various Insects. 117 Transformation of Caterpillars.—I have seen many of the cater- pillars of the common butterfly in the act of fixing the threads over their backs, the average number being about twenty-six ; some pass as many as thirty over their backs, and some only twenty-four. Every time it carries a thread over its back it glues it to the others which have been passed over its back before, which are all glued together into one thread ; it then withdraws its head, assumes a straight line, and waits to cast its skin and become a pupa. Some of them cast their skins at the end of three days, some at the end of six days, and some not till the end of the tenth day, when they become pup, from which the butterfly makes its escape in the following spring. Winter Midge.—Contrary to the assertion of a writer, I find a remarkable difference between the male and the female of the winter midge; the male has a slender body and fine feather- like antenne ; the female has a short body, and such small antenne, that it is difficult to perceive them with the naked eye. The swarms of these beautiful little creatures which are seen sporting im the air in such multitudes, in the winter evenings in mild weather in sheltered situations, are composed of males and females. As they sport together in the air they choose partners ; and while they struggle together they fall to the ground, where they become united, and remain together about ten minutes, when they separate, and fly away. There is another winter midge, found about the same time, in similar situations, which sports in the air in the same manner, and in large clusters ; the male and female fall down upon the ground, and remain together about the same time as the above, Ihave found the pupe of these flies among very rotten rabbit manure. I kept a few of them in a box, which in a few days produced flies exactly like, in shape, size, and colour, to those which I caught sporting in the air. These flies are a great deal larger than the ones above-mentioned ; in fact, they are a little larger than the common gnat, but destitute of that long tube in front of its head, which denotes the bloodthirsty gnat. Caterpillars of Bryophila perla—On old walls, which are exposed to the weather, I have found a great many caterpillars, which feed upon the fine particles of a silver colour which grow upon such places. They make their cocoons in the holes of the wall, weaving a web over the hole ; then they bite off bits of stone, brick, mortar, or moss, and fix it to the webbing, so that it is difficult to find them out in some places, as the cocoon so nearly resembles the wall, brick, or mortar, to which it joins. They are found in the winter months, and when the weather is mild they 118 Mr. W. Varney on the bite a hole through their cocoons, and come out and feed ; then they return back to their cells, and put out their excrement ; then they close up the hole, which makes it complete. They do not travel more than four or five inches, or at most a foot, from the cell, as they find food close at hand. They generally return to the cell which they had occupied before; but when several of them are feeding near together, they sometimes go into the wrong ones; and some of them cannot find their own cells, and are obliged to wander about till they can find a place to build a newone. They feed in the morning, and return to their cells about nine or ten o’clock, which I have witnessed many times. This morning, Thursday, 5th February, 1852, I saw a great many of them feeding upon a brick wall ; and I saw three of them go back to their own cells and eject their excrement ; then they closed up the entrance as neat as though it had never been opened. In cold weather they remain in their cocoons three or four days ; and in very sharp weather, as many as nine or ten days, or even more, without food; but as soon as the weather becomes mild, they feel the change, and break through the cell, and feed as fresh as ever. TI put one in the wall, in a small cavity, and put a piece of glass over it to see how it would begin its cell; and I saw it carry several threads over the hole. It then bit off several bits of moss, and pushed them between the threads, until it became quite thick, and I could not see it any longer, as the caterpillar was inside the cell. The cells are quite smooth inside. These larvee are about half or three-quarters of an inch long when they are full-grown, and are marked with blue and yellow stripes across the body. They change to a pupa, from which the fly makes its escape in about three weeks, in May. The eggs of these flies are a long while before they produce caterpillars, as the latter do not appear before the latter end of November, or the beginning of December, when the weather is damp and cold; and although they are very small, they seek for a small cavity, in which they construct them- selves anest. They are provided each with sixteen legs; some are of deeper blue than others, and most of them are marked with blue on each side, a yellow line along the back, and a few small brown spots. Blow Flies—Speaking of the species of blow-flies which pro- duce lively larve instead of eggs, Réaumur observed, that ‘“ there is no danger of the maggots being destroyed in the midst of the putrifying mass, which might have been the case had eggs been placed there.” When these flies find a piece of meat, or a dead carcase, they search about and find an opening, in which they Habits of Various Insects. 119 deposit their eggs, and always put them as near to the centre as they can; and as soon as the maggots are developed, they eat their way to the interior, where they find the most food. There is no fear of the eggs being killed in the middle of the dead carcase. The flies put their eggs as far as they can into the meat or carcase, where they find moisture, which hastens their development. The eggs are not to be seen on the exterior part of a dead carcase, or on the outer part of a piece of meat of any kind; but the flies take care to put them in the hollow and moist places, where they soon hatch; and if you open the mouths of any dead animals, you may find the eggs in large quantities. When they deposit their eggs on a living sheep, they are close on the skin, where it is moist. XVIII. Contributions towards the Natural History of British Microlepidoptera. By J. W. Doveias, Esq.— (Continued from page 81.) [Read 6th December, 1852. ] Genus Lirnocottetis, Zeller. (Pl. XIII.) Tue perfect insects of this genus may be known at a glance by the slenderness of their structure, the smallness of the thorax, and the characteristic markings of the anterior wings. These latter are fine lines on the apical half of the wing, sloping from either margin towards the apex, frequently meeting on the disk, and forming angles more or less acute. The general similarity of many species has caused great difficulty in recognising their distinctive characters ; but though by practice they become more easy to separate, yet the most satisfactory mode of determining them is to rear them from the caterpillar state. Zeller has observed (Linnza Entomologica, i, 169), that on account of the cilia of the anterior wings being coloured and scaled like the wings themselves, the true form of the latter is only to be seen on the under side. The larvz have but fourteen feet, the fourth ventral pair being absent; the whole body is flattened, the head small, and the three thoracic segments generally much widened; this last fact being the more remarkable when contrasted with the narrow 120 Mr. J. W. Douglas on the thorax of the perfect insect. ‘These larvee mine in the leaves of many plants ; some species on the upper and some on the under- side; each kind, however, keeping invariably to one side, and having its own characteristic method of working, and each indi- vidual passing its whole life in one leaf. When first the larva begins to feed on the parenchyma, it loosens the cuticle, which on this spot then appears as a whitish film: it soon, however, con- tracts into folds, the colour becomes darker, and as the hollowing process proceeds beneath it, the leaf contracts, and curves, more or less, forming a spacious tenement for the miner, whose age may be known by the appearance of its dwelling. The means by which it accomplishes its purpose have been described by Reaumur (vide ante, p. 102.) Of many, perhaps of all species, there are two broods ina year, When about to change to a pupa, the body of the larva becomes contracted, and of a clearer colour, having been cleansed of all remains of food. The change always takes place within the mined place ; in some cases, within a silken cocoon, made by the larva; in others, the pupa is loose. When the imago escapes, the pupa-skin is left projecting through the skin of the leaf. The characters of the genus are laid down by Zeller, in the ** Linnzea Entomologica,” (Band. I., 167, 1846); and descriptions are given of all the then known species. In Curtis’s ‘ British Ento- mology,” all the British species are placed in the genus 4rgyromiges, but unfortunately the author has drawn its characters from autumnella (T. Clerckella, L), which differs from the species with which it is there associated, in the form and neuration of its wings, in the enlarged basal joint of the antennee, in the larva having sixteen feet, and in its habit of quitting the leaf it has mined, previous to forming its suspended cocoon, so that it cannot stand as the representative of a genus whose larve have but fourteen feet, and change to the pupa state within the substance of leaves. Lithocolletis trifasciella, Haworth, Stainton. (Zool. 2088.) Larva (Pl. XIIL. fig. 1 a)—Length 23 lines.—Citron yellow, shining, transparent, hairy, with a green dorsal stripe. Head of a more dull yellow, mouth brown. Six pectoral, six ventral, and two anal legs yellowish. The upper surface of the segment bearing the last pair of ventral legs is orange. Mines the underside of the leaves of honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), the skin of which it wrinkles and detaches, forming a small pouch, in which it lives and feeds on the Natural History of British Microlepidoptera. 121 parenchyma. Soon the leaf begins to curve, and eventually it becomes so much twisted, that the apex approaches the base, and again turns upwards. (PI. XIII. fig. 1 6.) Pupa brown, with several curved light brown hairs, and a short anal spine. Formed loose in the mined place. Imago (Pl. XIII. fig. 1).—The first brood of caterpillars occurs in March and April, producing moths in May ; the second appears in June, perfecting themselves in July; and a third is found in September and October, transforming to the perfect state in October and November. This species is not rare in woods and hedges near London; but Mr. Stainton tells me, that in the hedges of Devonshire it is not uncommon to find every leaf on a young shoot of honeysuckle, four or five feet in length, tenanted by a larva. Lithocolletis Scabiosella. Douglas, n. sp. (Pl. XIII. fig. 2.) Alis anticis saturate croceis, niéidis, lineola basali alba, strigis tribus introrsus nigro-marginatis, strigulaque apicali argen- teis, macula obliqua pone strigam tertiam, apiceque nigris. Exp. alar. 33—4 lin. Flead and thorax concolorous with the anterior wings, face whitish, antenne black, narrowly annulated with whitish. Ante- rior wings rich deep saffron, very glossy, with a fine, very short white basal streak: three equidistant bright silvery strigee, mar- gined interiorly with black; the first nearly straight; the second angulated in the upper half; the third composed of two long opposite spots, broad on the margins of the wing, and meeting with pointed apices on the disk, but curving outwards, and forming an angle; two other white spots forma short apical striga, the apex itself and a long oblique spot, stretching from the third striga to the anal angle, being black. Cilia concolorous with the wings. All the tarsi broadly annulated black and white. Most nearly allied to ZL. trifasciella, the white markings of the anterior wings being almost identical in form; but the dark margins of the three strigaee are much narrower, and of a more uniform width; the ground colour of the wings is much darker, the whole surface is more glossy; the strigee especially being conspicuous by their bright silvery hue, and the average size Is a trifle less than in that species. Larva (Pl. XIII. fig. 2 a).—Length 23 lines.—Light yellow, with short hairs of the same colour, and a dark dorsal line. Head small, of a light testaceous colour; thoracic segments 122 Mr. J. W. Douglas on the widened, the others gradually tapering to the extremity of the body. Six pectoral, six ventral, and two anal legs the colour of the body. Feeds in the radical leaves of Scabiosa Columbaria (Pl. XIII. fig. 2 b), mining on the underside, detaching the epidermis, which becomes wrinkled in longitudinal folds ; the upper surface becomes convex in consequence, but preserves its colour. Pupa light brown, with a few very fine hairs, and a stout anal spine. There are two broods in a year. I first found the larve, very small, on the 9th of April, 1852, at the side of the old tram-way beyond Croydon, and they were perfected at the end of May. The second brood of caterpillars appeared in July, and the moths in August. This is the only species of this genus whose larvee are known to feed upon a herbaceous plant, all the others being found on the leaves of trees and shrubs. Lithocolletis Emberizepennella, Bouché, Zeller. (Lin. Ent. i. 241.) Larva (Pl. XIII. fig. 3 a).—Length 3 lines.x—Greenish white, widest in the centre, tapering a little to each end; thus differing from all other known larve of this genus, inasmuch as in them the thoracic segments are widest. Herr v. Nicellihas noticed this peculiarity in his paper on Lithocolletis, in the ‘‘ Entomologische Zeitung,” for 1851 (translated by Mr. Stainton, Zoologist, App. elxiii). Head pale greenish, margins and mouth brown. Six pectoral, six ventral, and two anal legs, the colour of the body. Mines the underside of the leaves of honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), making a large cavity (Pl. XIII. fig. 3 ¢), in con- sequence of which a large fold downward of the leaf occurs, and the cuticle appears white on the upper side, but the leaf does not twist round at right angles, as in the case of L. trifasciella. Found in July and September. Pupa (Pl. XIII. fig. 3 b).—Light brown, robust ; obtuse at the head and tapering to the other end, on which is no spine, but a scarcely visible blunt prolongation. ‘There area few hairs along the whole extent, and projecting from under the head towards the side, apparently from the margin of the next segment, are two stout hairs, or spines, curving outwards. The covers of the antennz are longer than the wing cases, but the pair of hind legs along which they are laid are still a little longer, and all are joined together in one piece, which at the apex is free from the body. Natural History of British Microlepidoptera. 123 (The figure was made from a specimen from which the moth was about to emerge, and the markings on the wings are seen through their cases.) The pupa is formed within the mined place, in a dark greenish brown, bluntly pointed, oval cocoon, of silk (PI. XIII. fig. 3 d), which is either loose or slightly attached to the leaf. Imago (Pl. XIII. fig. $).—Found in May and August. Genus GracitiariA, Haworth. (PI. XIV.) The most striking characteristics of this genus are the general slenderness, the length of the antennz, the length and narrowness of the antericr wings, the development of the maxillary as well as the labial palpi, and the position of the moths in repose—sitting with the fore legs advanced, the head elevated, the antennz laid back under the wings, and the apices of the anterior wings touching the surface on which they sit. Haworth has briefly characterised the genus (Lep. Brit. 527, 1828); Zeller more fully (Lin. Ent. ii. 313); and also Stainton (Trans. Ent. Soe. i. N. 8. 115). Mr. Curtis has given the characters, founded on dissections of G. Syringella, of which he has also figured the preparatory states (Brit. Ent, Pl. 479). The larvze feed on the leaves of various plants, probably all the species in the first instance, as miners; then each rolls a leaf into the form of a cone, at least the greater number of species do so, and feed within it. Some species are always miners. These larve have but six ventral legs. The pupa is enveloped in a cocoon, Gracillaria Franckella,, Hiibner, Zeller, Stainton. (Trans, Ent. Noc.as N.S. LL8;) Larva (Pl. XIV. fig. 1 a).—Length 3 lines.—Greenish white, semi-transparent, slightly hairy, the dark green of the dorsal vessel showing conspicuously through. Head yellowish, the mouth and two spots on the inferior side brown. The six pec- toral, six ventral, and two anal legs the colour of the body. Curls up the end of one of the lobes of leaves of the oak (PI. XIV. fig. 1 b), in which it feeds, discolouring its habitation, and removing to other leaves several times in succession. Found in August, September, and October. Pupa, in a cocoon attached to a leaf. Imago (P|. XIV. fig. 1).—Found in September and October, and hybernated specimens from April to June. 124 Mr. J. W. Douglas on British Microlepidoptera. Gracillaria stigmatella, Fabricius, Zeller, Stainton, (Trans. Ent. Soc. i. N. 8S. 120.) Larva (Pl). XIV. fig. 2 a).—Length 33 lines. —Greenish white, head yellowish, with two brown spots at the side; jaws brown; short white hairs on the whole length. The six pectoral, six ventral, and two anal legs are of the same colour as the body. Feeds on the leaves of sallows, poplars, and willows, rolling and fastening up the ends into the form of a cone (PI. XIV. fig. 2 6), within which it lives, consuming the portion rolled up; taking care, however, not to destroy the outer epidermis. This soon becomes discoloured, and when the supply of food is exhausted, the larva removes, and makes another similar habitation, and so on several times in succession. Found in August, September, and October. Pupa, ina cocoon attached to a leaf (Pl. XIV. fig. 2 c). Imago (Pl. XIV. fig. 2).—Found in September and October, and hybernated specimens in March and April. Gracillaria auroguttella, Stephens, Stainton. (Trans. Ent. Soe. i. N.S. 187.) Larva (P|. XIV. fig. 3 a).—Length 23 lines.—Pale whitish green, slightly shining, with short hairs on its whole length. The dorsal vessel shining through, of a dark green colour. The six pectoral, six ventral and two anal legs are of the colour of the body. Head pale brown. It first mines the leaves of Hypericum perforatum and H. humifusum in the centre, and as the gallery increases in length and width (though it never becomes very wide), the under side of the leaf is contracted, and the edges turn down. After living as a miner until the gallery is one-third or half an inch in length, it quits it and turns down the end of a leaf in a conical shape (PI. XIV. fig. 3b), and feeding within, the cone at first green, soon becomes whitish, and then brown, and it removes and forms several of these habitations in succession, each larger than the previous one. When full fed, it rolls a leaf no longer across and conically, but lengthwise, and as a tube; and this (soon becoming brown) resembles a miniature cigar (Pl. XIV. fig. 3 c). In this, after spinning a closely fitting silken web, it becomes a pupa (Pl. XIV. fig. 3d). There are two broods in a year; the first in the beginning of July, producing perfect insects in August; the other in October, remaining all winter in the pupa state, and transforming in May. Imago (PI. X1V. fig. 3). CO 19BS) XIX. Notices of some New Species of Strepsipterous Insects from Albania, with further Observations on the Hlabits, Transformations, and Sexual Economy of these Parasites. By 8.8. Saunpers, Esq. [Read 6th December, 1852. ] Havine met with several new Strepsipterous parasites, obtained from different species of Hyleus and Odynerus, and having had frequent opportunities of witnessing their metamorphoses at different periods, whereby many of the questions which had arisen as to the mode of effecting ingress and egress, the relative posi- tion of the dorsal and ventral surfaces on emerging, the expansion of the vaginal orifice in hexapod-bearing females, and other debateable points, (alluded to in my former communication pub- lished in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, vol. i. N.S. p. 43,) may receive further elucidation, I now proceed to lay before the Society the result of my observations, as classed under the following heads. 1. Saltatorial Powers of the Hexapod Larve. These hexapod larvee, when their segments are distended, are of a semi-transparent piceous hue, with minute black eyes, the thoracic region being somewhat inflated, and the segments thence gradually tapering towards the anal extremity; each distin- guished, where superposed, by a fine transverse line of deeper brown, the three anterior segments having the posterior margin more broadly banded, the anal apex inclining to castaneous, with the base of the setze piceous. Those of Xenos Rossii are enabled to leap to the distance of full half an inch, but by what means this movement was effected I could not determine. They did not appear to double themselves round for this purpose, as in the case of the cheese-maggot (Tyrophaga casei, Curt.) ; nor did I observe that the effect was produced, as may be conceived, by the action of the tail and caudal setae, as practised by the Podurelle, Latr. They also repeatedly lept upon the brush wherewith I had been inciting them to the performance of this feat, after having removed it, as I thought, above their reach. I afterwards observed the same process repeated in the hexapod progeny of the Strepsipterous parasite obtained from a species of Ancistrocerus. 2. Mode of Attack by the Hexapod Larve. Having captured about the middle of July a large female 126 Mr. 8. 8. Saunders’s Wotices of some Polistes, with three prolific female parasites protruding from the dorsal segments of the abdomen, I selected from a Polistes nest a variety of its inmates, in different stages of development ; namely, first, a well-conditioned ovum, with the yelk concen- trated, the head and eyes partially discernible, but the embryo exhibiting as yet no signs of activity ;—secondly, one in a more advanced state, the larva within ready to burst the superin- cumbent pellicle, and making vigorous efforts to do so,—but on placing some of the hexapods upon these, they invariably effected their escape. I next chose two larve of moderate dimensions, carefully extracted, whereunto the hexapods very readily attached them- selves in a singular manner, affixing both head and tail like leeches. I had already noticed a similar proceeding on the part of certain hexapod larve of Hylecthrus, which, in the absence of any larvae of Hyleus, I had placed upon some other larve of diminutive size, obtained from a Polistes nest, to which the former readily attached themselves in the manner aforesaid; sometimes com- mencing with a wriggling motion, and shortly afterwards remain- ing perfectly still, assuming by degrees a gibbous distended form. Fearing at first, from their apparently inanimate condition, that they might have been injured in some manner, I supplied several in succession, with the like results ; when, disturbing one of the earliest so placed, I found it still alive, the body being moved about from side to side without withdrawing the head. The following morning, finding the hexapods still motionless, I again disturbed one of them, when it commenced coiling about with the same activity as before, retaining the head immovable, and appa- rently endeavouring to effect a breach; or perhaps already imbibing nourishment, as practised by the larvee of certain Dip- tera, in which the resemblance to the leech is also carried out. The Polistes larvee, together with the hexapods, perished within two or three days, without any further operations on the part of the latter; but the subsequent experiment with the Xenos hexapods proved more conclusive. At 2 p.m., one of these hexapods had affixed itself upon the back of the first of the two Polistes larvae aforesaid (which by way of distinction may be designated as A. and B.), and at 5 p.m., had completely buried itself beneath the skin, in a transverse position ; while another, which had stationed itself upon the cate- nulated lateral margin of the segments, remained at the same period in statu quo. By the morning, however, the latter had New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 127 shifted its quarters, and was observed nearly buried beneath the skin, at no great distance from its companion, and later in the day both were completely out of sight. The other larva, B., which had two hexapods placed upon it at 3 p.m., one of which had taken up its position on the breast, was found at 5 p. m., having this half-buried beneath the skin, “the remaining portion recumbent, and attached outside. The second hexapod had fixed itself upon a lobe of the head, near the mentum, from which I was unable to detach it; but it sub- sequently removed, and in the morning was nowhere to be found, while the first had entirely and deeply penetrated within. Other hexapods, placed upon a soft yellow Polistes pupa, left this unmolested. 3. First Moult. About a week later, viz., on the 24th, seeing little prospect of rearing the said Polistes larve, to which I had administered in the interval moistened sugar, diluted honey, fruit, &c., with no appearance of relish on their part, I determined to institute a search for the hexapods within, in order to ascertain what their condition might be. On carefully opening B, and removing a dark globular mass, which is always met with in those larve, I found the hexapod which had penetrated on the 17th and 18th, in a somewhat distended condition, perfectly motionless, the head deflexed, the anterior segments humped, and obviously preparing to undergo its first moult, as seen in the silkworm. In about half an hour, I observed that the juices of the Polistes larva were rapidly inspissating, while the hexapod itself appeared to have undergone some alteration; and on further examination, I perceived that the latter was then in the act of discarding its hexapod skin, the anterior portion being now pellucid white, without any trace of legs, furnished with two minute but very distinctly marked black eyes, and having the lower region still enveloped in the fuscous folds of the hexapod. During the day, I also opened the other Polistes larva, A, and soon found the two hexapods which had penetrated on the 18th,—one having its head turned towards the anal extremity, the other lying transversely ; neither, however, having undergone any metamorphosis. 4, Position in the Feeding State. It would seem, from the foregoing remarks, that the position of the Strepsipterous larve in the incipient stage exhibits no uni- formity, and that the hexapods indiscriminately attack any part of their victims, although eventually restricted to the abdo- 128 Mr. S. 8. Saunders’s WVotices of some minal region, preparatory to their ultimate exit. The relative direction of the head appears to vary up to a late period, even when the Hyleus or other victim has assumed the pupa state. Among the specimens presented will be found a Hyleus nymph, wherein, on removing the terminal segments to the fourth, exclu- sive, I perceived the anal extremity of a Strepsipterous larva projecting. On separating the fourth segment, the head of the parasite was found directed towards the thorax, in which position it is still retained within the disrupted segment. After this, the third segment was in like manner removed, when three more larvze of smaller dimensions were observed ; one of which was lying transversely, the other two with their heads directed towards the anal extremity, and apparently in the act of forcing a passage between the adipose tissue and outer tegument of the bee, which operation had been commenced higher up. The whole were, however, of much smaller size than might have been expected at this period of their growth; but whether in con- sequence of there being four to be sustained by one bee, or from some other cause, must be left to conjecture. 5. Mode of effecting Exit. The nymphs of those Hylei which are likely to produce the pale-coloured specimens (HZ. versicolor), which prove, as antici- pated, to be only a variety of the H. rubicola consequent upon parasitic absorption, may usually be identified within one or two days of their final metamorphosis, by assuming a yellow tinge, and may be set apart as certain to produce male parasites. I have not unfrequently been enabled to detect the eye-shades of the latter before the Hyleus nymph has discarded its pellicle, working to and fro beneath the dorsal tegument ; although more conspicuous when the bee first attains the imago form, the head of the parasite being then seen turning from side to side, and steadily pressing all the while upon the rostrum, as the axis about which it revolves, in the ratio of one-eighth of a circle, for the purpose of introducing this between the abdominal folds. Thus when one eye-shade advances the other recedes, both being some- times carried deeper below, when the greater strain appears to operate upon the upheld rostrum. As soon as a lodgment is effected, this is gradually pushed forward by a continuation of the same process, until sufficiently advanced, the entire operation occupying from one hour in some cases, to two hours in others, and immediately following the ultimate transformation of the bee in its then moist state; after which the parasite remains perfectly motionless. New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 129 I have sometimes seen three parasites thus engaged simul- taneously within the same Hyleus; and should the attempt not prove successful, the locality is changed for the segmental division next in succession; or, if foiled again here, the parasite some- times remounts to the preceding one. These efforts have been continued for upwards of an hour after a newly developed imago Hyleus, within which the eye shades were discerned, had been immersed in spirits, until at length the parasite appeared to have attained the extreme verge of the segmental threshold ere its career was finally arrested. The same absorbent influences upon the Hyleus not being pro- duced in the case of female parasites, nor any indication of their presence being supplied, as might be expected, by a distension of the abdominal region, no opportunity has been afforded, as in the case of the males, of observing their proceedings at the period of exit. 6. Occasional Exit from ventral Surface. Instances have occurred when male parasites have effected their exit between the ventral segments of the Hylai. A similar oc- currence in the Xenos has been alluded to by Jurine, who states that he found their “ tumeurs placées ordinairement entre les 3°, 4° et 5° segmens abdominaux, plus frequemment en dessus qu’en dessous.” This anomaly having been witnessed in the Hyl@i in those cases only where several parasites had been nurtured by the same indi- vidual, may be ascribable to impediments derived from want of space, although in some instances three fully developed pupa- cases have been protruded between the dorsal folds, and the imago duly produced from each. Whenever any of the parasites have presented themselves on the ventral surface of the abdomen of the bee, the pupa-cases have been reversed, their relative position as regards the body of the bee being the same as usual, the rostrum pointing towards the abdominal segments. 7. Subsequent Metamorphoses. a. Of the Male. The head of the male Hylecthrus at the moment of protrusion is white, the eye-shades of a castaneous hue, and the rostrum presenting a semilunar piceous margin, forming an indurated apex, with a curvilineal lateral prolongation at the base towards VOL, Il. N. S. PART V.— JUNE, 18093. K 130 Mr. 8. S. Saunders’s WVotlices of some the eyes. The eye-shades are found to present at the time of exit the usual fenestrated disc, consisting of a number of minute transparences disposed in regular rows, In the course of a few hours the pupa-case assumes a light castaneous tinge, which con- tinues gradually darkening as the occult nymph approaches ma- turity, until at length discarding its slender pellicle, and advancing from its previous retractile position closer to the operculum, the black head from within produces a darkening effect upon the whole. If previously to this moment a needle be passed trans- versely through the operculum, the nymph remains uninjured thereby, nor does the removal of the operculum leave the head prominently exposed. When the operculum has retained a cas- taneous tinge, and not separated readily on pressure, the parasite may be considered as still immature; or should the bee die before the parasite is well advanced towards its ultimate metamorphosis, the latter may be expected to perish, from the want of the accus- tomed moisture; nor indeed, if in a more forward state, does it appear able to accomplish its final moult under such circumstances, remaining therefore perfect in all its parts, but still enveloped in the pellicle of the nymph. b. Of the Female. When first porrected from the abdomen of the bee, the cepha- lothorax of the female Hylecthrus is nearly diaphanous, with a piceous marginal induration, corresponding anteriorly with the proboscis in the operculum of the male, the deflexion of which in both would appear to indicate a similarity in the position and pro- ceedings of the larve prior to egress. The convex shield on the upper surface exhibits anteriorly two glossy protuberances seated in an angular recess on each side of the disc, being at first of a brown colour, which afterwards disap- pears by the dispersion of the subjacent humours, leaving, how- ever, the site more transparent. On the lateral margin, at the extreme corners of the occipital suture beneath the shield, are two piceous tubercles, occupying the place of the eyes; the discal shield extending at first in close proximity to the indurated piceous apex of the cephalothorax, where, shortly after protru- sion, a separation is effected in the natural course of development, whence the upper region of the true head becomes partially ex- posed. The superior lip, broad and rounded at the sides, tra- versed at the base by a delicate sutural line, is furnished in the centre with a small quadrate emarginate plate, having on each side a kind of obtuse palpiform process, terminating in a glossy New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 131 tubercle, corresponding in position with those seen on either side of the rostrum in the operculum of the male ; and in approxima- tion to these, curving round from the base, are two deflexed shining corneous appendages, which may be considered equivalent to the mandibular organs of the male; the inferior lip curling over beneath. In the course of a few days the apical region of the squamous disc becomes so much vaulted and foreshortened, that by a com- parison of two female parasites bred from the same bee, it would appear as if in one of these an anterior lobe had been thrown off as an operculum, on a line corresponding above with a well- defined sutural curve on the concave surface below, marking the extreme limit of the true larva head, having, however, the vaulted prothoracic segment still partially carried forward hood- like above. On a front inspection of this semi-lunar arched aperture in prolific females, a delicate membranous pellicle may be discerned within, (sometimes attached to the thoracic hood, and at other times separated,) presenting a well defined arcuate anterior mar- gin, porrected beneath the convex shield, and corresponding with the prothoracic arch, whence it may be inferred that this dis- junction is produced in like manner by a natural separation of parts; the base of the orifice being connected by piceous lateral nervures, swerving upwards from the lower region of the ceso- phagus towards the larva mouth in front. On removing the superincumbent convex shield, the quadri- lateral thoracic duct, already perceptible through the disc, is found covered throughout with this flatly distended pellicle, which, for reasons afterwards explained, must be considered to extend over the whole of the thoracic region. This duct, hence- forth serving as the vaginal channel, continues gradually widen- ing until it reaches the soft abdominal segments; and eventually is used by the hexapod progeny as a kind of vestibule or mar- supium for egress and ingress, according to circumstances, as noticed by Dr. Siebold, and witnessed also by myself. It has never occurred to me to find ova or immature larve therein, as in the instance alluded to by Mr, Newport;* in which case, however, the abdomen of the parasite having been previously ruptured,” the ova may possibly have been displaced. At the origin of the mesothorax, where the disc of the shield is much inflated, a minute stigma may be traced on the lateral * Linn. Trans. vol. xx. p. 337. K 2 132 Mr. 8. 8. Saunders’s WVotices of some margin; the metathorax exhibiting a more conspicuous protu- berance towards the basal angles of the thoracic shield, preceded by a well-defined stigma, visible on the marginal rim at the origin of this segment, and communicating with a deflexed nervure or tubular process, carried obliquely to the base of the thoracic channel on each side. These meso- and metathoracic stigmata may be considered to offer an analogy to the sockets of the pseudelytra and wings in the male. Looking also to the original condition of the hexapod larve, and to their subsequent metamorphoses, it may be assumed that up to the moment of their protrusion from the abdominal seg- ments of their victims in the pseudo-pupa state, both males and females have undergone similar and corresponding changes ; whence it follows that the ultimate larva-skin or pupa-case, dis- carded by the male, and the exuvie of the nymph, must co-exist in the female, which does not divest herself of either. In fact, after having removed the upper region of the cephalo- thorax as aforesaid, on making a horizontal section of the sub- jacent parts, the existence of a separate inferior region of the cephalothorax, forming with the upper a complete exterior sheath, may be readily perceived, leaving the internal cephalothoracic orga- nization distinct, with the vaginal duct entire; the pellicle covering which, and next in succession, (corresponding anteriorly in extent and arch with the apical margin of the prothoracic hood,) being equivalent pro tanto to the exuvial skin of the nymph; the true imago remaining intermediate, and exhibiting on the trans- verse sutural line at the base of the head, occupying a retractile position beneath the said porrected pellicle, two minute rufescent discal tubercles on the upper surface, which may possibly indicate the rudimentary condition of the antenne. Thus an incomplete metamorphosis, analogous to that of the male, may be traced in the female, the desiccated outer tegument of the cephalothorax being only the incipient pupa-case of the real pupa and imago conformation within. 8. Relative Position of the Dorsal and Ventral Surfaces. Whenever opportunities have presented themselves of ascer- taining the position of the males prior to exit, I have found that the Xenos and its allies (namely, those parasites obtained from Polistes, Oplopus, Wesm., and Ancistrocerus, Wesm.) emerged from the pupa-case, as recorded by Dr. Siebold, with the ventral region uppermost; whereas the Hylecthri, as well perhaps as Stylops and others parasitic upon the softer bodied Mellifera, New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 133 usually present themselves in a converse position, with the dorsal region upwards ; the back of the parasite in the former case being turned towards the back of the wasp, and in the latter case the ventral surface of the parasite resting on the back of the bee. On the other hand, from the corresponding indications in the opercula of Xenos and Hylecthrus, and from a comparison of the projecting hood of the prothorax in the pupa-cases of the former with the analogous vaulted orifice in the females, &c., it is scarcely questionable that the relative position of the whole of these para- sites on emerging from the abdominal folds is uniform in all cases, unless when protrudéd from the ventral segments of their victim. Upon examining the orifice of the pupa-case of Xenos Rossi, presented to the Society (No. 2), from which the operculum has been separated, a sharp angular prolongation bent upwards is visible on the inferior margin, as if the abdominal segments of the wasp, between which the parasite had penetrated, had exer- cised too stringent a pressure upon the under side of the pro- thorax, thereby interfering with the aperture, which is rather oblong than circular, and bipartite in consequence of the bent up prolongation mentioned above, which must considerably impede the egress of the imago, as experienced by myself on one occasion when endeavouring to extract from the pupa-case the male of Xenos Heydenu after death. No such obstacle is encountered in the pupa-cases of Hylec- thrus, where the orifice retains the original circular form of the full fed larva, and the nymphs are found with the ventral region downwards, although I once observed in a reversed position a male of H. rubi, which had perished when in the act of divesting itself from the pellicle of the nymph. The following inferences would appear to be deducible from the above recited eet: namely, 1. That the pupa-cases of the males in Xenos and Hylecthins: &c. correspond in position. 2. That the position of the perfect males on emerging usually differs in Xenos and Hylecthrus. 3. That one or other must therefore turn within the pupa-case, a faculty which both appear to possess as nymphs. 4. That the females of all Strepsipterous parasites obviously coincide in position. 5. That in the pseudo-pupa state the males and females protrude between the abdominal segments of their victims in a similar position. 6. That it would lerctare seem scarcely doubtful that the 134 Mr. 8. S. Saunders’s Notices of some convex upper surface in the females corresponds with the dorsal, and the concave under surface with the ventral region. 9. Exit of the Imago Male. After the first burst, produced apparently by the parasite press- ing forcibly against the operculum, the head and shoulders being instantaneously protruded on this falling off, a slight effort suffices to liberate the pseudelytra and first pair of legs; when all these organs idly beating the air and agitating incessantly, much exer- tion is made to effect a passage for the second pair of legs, where the principal detention occurs; after which a few jerks up and down speedily serve to release the metathorax and abdomen ; the imago forthwith winging its flight towards the light, where it con- tinues flitting up and down until its fragile frame becomes ex- hausted, and it sinks powerless below, still vibrating its wings but unable to rise again. I have never succeeded in retaining them alive beyond the day of exit, and indeed they have not often survived more than a few hours, generally between two and three. Jurine, who was equally unsuccessful in this respect, suggested that their premature death might be occasioned by the continual blows received when coming into contact with the glass; but the same effects have been pro- duced when I have allowed them to emerge within a pill box covered with fine muslin at top and bottom, and freely exposed to a current of air, with moistened cotton placed in front. Yet during their brief term of existence they are not so weak and helpless as may be supposed, for on one occasion when three male Hylecthri were obtained alive from a dead Hyleus, the first which exhibited itself commenced dragging the bee about behind him, together with his unemancipated comrades, until he succeeded eventually in effecting his escape from the pupa-case. Sometimes the parasite has been observed to twist round upon the dorsal segments of the bee while making its exit, and then resume its original position, the whole operation occupying usually but a few minutes, and occasionally less than one. ‘The ordinary period for quitting the pupa-case, in the Hylecthri, would appear to be about the eighth day after their first protrusion; nor upon careful investigation have I found any complete their final meta- morphosis sooner than this, although sometimes protracted a day or two later. The darkening of the operculum serves to indicate the immediate presence of the imago in contiguity to the fenes- trated lattices, watching for a fitting opportunity to effect its exit ; when exposure to a full light, without sun, is sufficient to induce New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 135 it to make the necessary efforts for this purpose; nor are the parasites dependent on such occasions upon any assistance from their foster parents, I having on several occasions found them ac- complish their deliverance by their own unaided exertions after the death of the latter, by placing the still moist bee in a glass tube on the window frame, having the operculum of the parasite directed towards the light. To whatever cause the early death of the male parasites may be attributed, it is certainly retarded by detention within the pupa-case. I once found one alive five days after the death of the bee, and the thirteenth from the first appearance of the pupa between the abdominal folds: and in the case of Mr. Pickering’s stylopized Andrena, found on Christmas Day, the parasite would probably have retained its pupa domicile for a much longer period. 10. Uniformity of Sex in collaterally developed Parasites. I now proceed to offer some remarks upon the sexual economy of these parasites, and in the first place to notice the marked tendency which exists in those nurtured by the same Hyme- nopterous insect, to exhibit, when more than one is produced, a uniformity of sex. These coincidences have been witnessed on so many occasions that they can hardly be ascribed to accident alone ; twenty males and fourteen females of Hylecthrus having been obtained in corre- sponding pairs; twelve males and three females occurring by threes, and similar effects being also noticed in the parasites ob- tained from Polistes, Oplopus, and Ancistrocerus ; nor have I ever found both male and female parasites associated in the same indi- vidual. On the other hand, it is certain that both sexes of Stylops Spencii were met with by Mr. Pickering in one Andrena, as the figures given thereof clearly indicate ;* so that in attempting to account for this agreement in sex as the usual, though not inva- riable, concomitant of such association among Strepsipterous para- sites, subjected to the like conditions and influences during the whole period of their larva-growth, the result would seem to be attributable rather to the operation of some causes antecedent to the primary attack, than to influences derived subsequent thereto; and hence, following up the inquiry to the hexapods, and the ova from which they emanate, we are led to consider from what start- * Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. Vol. I., p. 172, and Pl}. XVII. 136 Mr. §. 8. Saunders’s Notices of some ing point that divergence originates which eventually conduces to so marked a contrast between the highly developed external organization of the male, and the retroactive internal concentra- tion of the vital energies in the female; or, as Dr. Hermann Burmeister has described these opposite tendencies, the active and passive agency displaying itself by “‘ preponderance of evolu- tion” in the one case, and ‘ predominance of involution” in the other. * Some analogous instances of homogeneous development are met with among those Hymenopterous insects which construct their larva abodes in a consecutive series, the sexes being retained dis- tinct and separate, the cells of the one terminating before those of the other commence. So also among the Vespide, and in Polistes especially, a complete series of cells is at one time exclusively devoted to males, and another of larger dimensions set apart for females only, the ova producing which are consequently deposed in a continuous series: and the development of the fecundating principle being promoted by a difference in the quantity and quality of the food supplied. It would seem, then, not unreasonable to attribute to Strepsip- terous insects the tendency to disseminate their ovoviparous pro- geny in a sexual series, those attaining maturity about the same time, and emanating from the same ovarial division, being endowed as such with the constituent characteristics of one particular sex ; although instances may occur in which both sexes have been nur- tured by the same bee under precisely identical conditions and influences. ll. Effects produced by the Parasites upon the reproductive Powers of their Victims. In attempting to account for the aforesaid associations, a pre- liminary difficulty presents itself in the supposed sterility of the insects attacked, whose vital functions are obviously affected thereby to a considerable extent, as many well-attested facts serve to establish. That such a result should ensue in cases like that of the 4n- drena tibialis, from which three specimens of the Stylops Spenci were obtained, is scarcely problematical; and may also occur whensoever the highly-developed organization of male parasites has been acquired at the expense of their victims, the effects pro- duced being frequently exhibited in the absorbent influences upon * Burmeister’s Manual, translated by Shuckard, sects. 133 and 206. . New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 137 ‘the abdominal region, which is crippled and distorted also to a considerable extent by the desiccated conical pupa-cases of the male parasite, but apparently scarcely incommoded by the pres- sure of the female. Mr. Newport indeed on one occasion, when only a single spe- cimen of a female Stylops had been nurtured, found the oviducts of the bee ‘of ordinary length and size, but the ovaries entirely undeveloped, and scarcely larger than they are at the period when the bee-larva passes to the state of nymph. They contained only the germs of a few very imperfect ova.” * On the other hand, when speaking of the manner in which the hexapod larve of Stylops are transferred to the cells of their victims, he observes, “ they cling fast to the hairs on the body of the wasp or bee in which they have been hatched, and are trans- ported by the insect to its nest.”t+ And again, “the Stylops hatched within its parent in the abdomen of the bee, issues forth and clings to the hairs which cover the body of the fated insect, and thus at once has a means of conveyance on the bee to her nest, in which it is to be fed.” t These remarks, which necessarily assume the victim to be capable of constructing brood-cells, and of depositing eggs therein, are in perfect unison with Dr. Siebold’s views upon this subject, as expounded under his seventh result, wherein he states, “ Die sechsbeinigen Strepsipteren-Larven kriechen auf dem Ab- domen der Hymenopteren, in welchen ihre miitter wohnen, munter umher. Diese Strepsipteren-Larven lassen sich auf diese weise in die nester der Hymenopteren tragen, wo sie alsdann gelegenheit finden, sich durch die weichen Kérper-Bedeckungen der Hyme- nopteren-Larven hindurch zu arbeiten, und in die Leibeshohle derselben zu gelangen.” § If, indeed, in accordance with the opinion first suggested by Kirby, and generally assented to by others, as to the probable effects upon the reproductive powers in the case of the male para- sites, the same results be also attributable to the females, and their hexapod progeny consequently be always dependent upon fortuitous means of access to the larva-cells of prolific individuals ; the circumstance of the subsequent co-ordination of the sexes in these parasites, indiscriminately dispersed in the first instance and assembled at random afterwards, could only be ascribed to some * Loc. cit. p. 335. + Loc. cit. p. 334. ¢ Loc. cit. p. 350. § Weigmann’s Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, 1843, p. 139. 138 Mr. 8. S. Saunders’s Wotices of some influence operating during the period of larva-growth, which we should scarcely be warranted in assuming. How, moreover, should we account for the circumstance of the Polistes, the Hylai, the Andrene, the Odyneri and others visiting simultaneously the same flowers and localities, being always attacked by their own peculiar species of parasites, and these re- taining unimpaired their consistent associations in one unbroken line of descent ? If, again, it be averred that out of a number of hexapods pro- miscuously conveyed to the cells, those only which may prove to be of precisely suitable condition and habits obtain an available domicile, this would scarcely hold good among nearly-allied groups, nor can it be conceived that the hexapods themselves should be enabled to discriminate their appropriate abode, where no palpable difference may exist in the store, before even the larvee upon which they are to subsist are extant in the cells ; still less that these hexapods, produced in such myriads, should not, that I am aware of, like the yellow hexapods of Meloe, de- scribed by Mr. Newport, be frequently met with in profusion upon certain flowers, as well as upon various Dipterous and Hyme- nopterous insects.* While, therefore, the sterility of the victims in certain cases may be deemed incontestable, the general enunciation of this prin- ciple would appear to be incompatible with the known conditions affecting the perpetuation of the species in the parasites, although a large proportion of these must necessarily perish in the hex- apod larva state, without obtaining a suitable abode—excessive numbers serving to provide, as in many other well-known in- stances, a compensating medium in this respect. Some hexapod larvee of Hylecthrus having on one occasion been placed by me upon a very diminutive Polistes larva, I found them attach themselves without hesitation in the usual manner, remaining affixed thereto, without, however, succeeding in pene- trating, nor did they afterwards abandon the position so taken up. If, however, the hexapod larvee of all Strepsipterous insects be left, in the ordinary course of events, to chance conveyance by any bee or wasp to any cell to be reared, as occasions may offer, upon the larve of any victim answering to certain required con- ditions, the manner in which those conditions would often be found fulfilled among allied genera and species must lead to in- terminable confusion in the distribution of the parasites, instead * Loc. cit. p. 310, et seq. New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 139 of each being retained, as at present, within its own allotted sphere. 12. Inferences as to double-brooding in the Xenos. Having been induced, on a former occasion,* to hazard a con- jecture as to the existence of double broods in Xenos, from cer- tain deductions drawn in connexion with the known economy of Polistes, and the early appearance of the hexapod larve of the parasites, as noticed by Dr. Siebold (their identity,f however, with those of Xenos requiring confirmation), the following facts, which have since come under my observation, may be deemed to afford some corroborative testimony in this respect. On the 4th of July, I captured at large a male Polistes, bearing a well-developed female Xenos, having the vaginal orifice fully ex- panded. This Polistes was necessarily reared from a larva of the same year, since none but females hybernate. ‘The Xenos must con- sequently have been produced from a hexapod deposited in the larva cell of the Polistes about the same period. But this male Polistes was doomed to perish before the ensuing winter; there- fore, any progeny to which its parasite might have given birth, if available for the continuation of the species, would require to be introduced forthwith to the larva cells of another Polistes, in con- junction with whose female brood the young hexapods might again be enabled to fulfil the required conditions of maturity and fecunda- tion, and thus transfer their posterity, together with the hyber- nating Polistes, to the following year. Under any other circum- stances, it must be assumed that all female parasites met with in the males of Polistes (which Rossi states to be more subject to such attacks than the females {) can take no part in the continua- tion of the race. Similar deductions may also be drawn in the case of the female Polistes, exhibiting three prolific females of Xenos, already ad- verted to when describing the proceedings of the hexapods so obtained. This was on the 17th of July; yet in the preceding instance of the male Polistes, it has been shown that an early brood or series of hexapods had already finished their transfor- mations and attained the perfect state at least a fortnight earlier. On the other hand, it is manifest that these hexapods produced subsequently, must secure a larva-domicile and accomplish their metamorphoses before winter, in order that when the Polistes quit their hybernacula in the spring»the Xenos females may dis- * Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. Vol. I. (N.S.), p. 50. t Loe. cit. p. 143; Results 29 and 30. ¢t Faun. Etrus. Mant., Append., p. 115, note. 140 Mr. 8. S. Saunders’s Notices of some pose of their hexapod progeny as required, and thus complete their destined cycle of existence. 13. Impregnation of the Female. It only remains to notice some experiments made as to the pairing of the sexes in the Hylecthri, having on various occasions, when male parasites were obtained, selected bees bearing speci- mens of their apterous partners for the purpose of introducing these into the glass tubes containing the former. More difficulty, however, being experienced in retaining the bees alive when nur- turing female parasites than when encumbered with the conical pupa cases of males, these experiments were for some time limited to newly-protruded specimens of the former, which the males were in nowise disposed to notice; although, while the latter were in- cessantly quivering up and down towards the light, 1 was enabled to bring the females conspicuously before them by keeping the bees turned in that direction, so that the male parasites were con- tinually traversing their path, or even crossing over them. Conceiving at length that these female parasites had possibly not attained the required degree of development, I selected one which had emerged five days previously, placing the bee in the same bottle with two male parasites whose exit from the pupa-case had just been accomplished, when impregnation was several times at- tempted on the part of both males; but the Hyleus being in a feeble condition, and in fact dying later in the day, was frequently falling from side to side, having no power to retain a firm footing anywhere. The abdomen of the male was on each occasion strongly recurved in the direction of the squamous cephalothorax of the female, the same proceeding being noticed ten or a dozen times, the males flying off and returning at intervals. They, however, as usual, only maintained their activity for about the space of two hours, after which they remained exhausted and helpless, so as to be shaken out on paper without risk of escape. About a fortnight later another opportunity presented itself of witnessing similar results. A bee exhibiting a female parasite, having completed its transformations on the 25th June, was placed the same day in a phial containing a newly-issued male Hy- lecthrus, without the slightest notice being taken of the former, although repeatedly brought in the way of the latter. The fol- lowing day the experiment was renewed with other males, some of these inclosed in a muslin-covered box, but without effect. On the third day, having introduced the same Hyleus to a phial containing a male parasite which had just quitted the pupa-case, ihe latter immediately settled upon the abdomen of the bee, qui- New Species of Strepsipterous Insects. 141 vering his expanded and uplifted wings, while recurving the abdomen considerably in the direction of his secluded partner, and returning on several occasions to repeat the same process, although the pairing may not have been fully consummated on any of these occasions, the Hyleus being, as in the former in- stance, in a disabled state, and dying in the course of the day. DEscRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 1. Xenos Heydenii. Long. corp. +45 unc., mas. The male is much smaller and more elongate than that of the Xenos Rossii, having also the antenne less lanceolate. The female has the cephalothorax more acuminate and of a dark piceous hue, with a strongly-marked longitudinal impression near the lateral margin on each side of the prothoracic disc. Inhabits the bodies of Ancistrocerus deflendus. Of the male I only obtained a single specimen, extracted in a bad condition after death, the Ancistrocerus bearing the pupa of which, having been taken on the 5th July, died on the 8th, when on partially removing the operculum the nymph of the parasite was found still pale; but it changed from white to black on the 9th, and was extracted dead in the imago state on the 13th. The operculum also, on internal inspection, differs from that of Xenos Rossuv in its markings and transparent portions. Of the female I obtained several specimens, captured from the 29th June to the 10th August, and among these some producing hexapods on the 13th July and 9th August. The Ancistroceri were chiefly met with on the flowers of the wild peppermint in localities sheltered from the wind. I have been induced to attach to this species the name of the Senator Van Heyden, who is recorded in our Transactions* to have met with a new Xenos in a small Odynerus, which, however, he conceived to have been the O. auctus. Found in the neighbourhood of Prevesa and the Ambracian Gulf. The Ancistrocerus from which this was was obtained, apparently an undescribed species, has the clypeus black, with a well-defined broad yellow band across the base and embracing the angles on each side, a truncate frontal mark, a spot in front of each eye, and a streak behind their posterior margin, yellow. Antenne black, the basal joint yellow beneath. Mandibles straight, somewhat rufescent, yellow at the base, with the inner dentate margin * Trans. Ent. Soc. Vol. I. p. xxiv. 142 Mr. 8. S. Saunders’s Wotices of some black. Thorax anteriorly banded with yellow; the scapula of the wings and a spot beneath the same of variable size, the posterior angles more or less, and two transverse bands across the scutellum, the anterior one usually broadest, entire or bilobed, yellow. Abdo- men having the posterior margin of each segment except the last in the female, and the two last in the male, broadly yellow, which in the first segment is dilated on each side towards the base; the second segment campanulate, with a large isolated basal pustule of the same colour on each side, sometimes entirely absent; all the seg- ments having the yellow margins traversed by a close irregular double series of black punctures. Legs yellow, with the base of the femora black, and the apex of tarsi testaceous; body somewhat piceous beneath, the posterior margin of the second abdominal segment yellow. Wings hyaline. The male differs in having the clypeus entirely yellow, or with only a small discal black marking, and the penultimate and anal abdominal segments bearing a yellow pustule. Long scorpa 4) -