My dear Mr. Darwin,

Some time before I received your last post-card I had sent the photographs of Dr. Zacharias’ insects to my friend Prof. Wood-Mason who has been making a special study of the Orthoptera of late & he has returned them to me with a letter confirming the generic name (Pterochroza) I sent to you.¹

No. 1, of which I could not find a specimen in the B.M., is probably P. ocellata Serville.²

À propos of the little beetles which came out of Fritz Müller’s seeds of Cassia neglecta a friend of mine showed me some time ago some small seeds from Brazil which when first sent over possessed the remarkable property of jumping about—particularly when held in the hand or otherwise exposed to a slight elevation of temperature. After a time the seeds lost this property & on opening one a small dead larva (Coleopterous?) was found inside. This leads me to ask whether the insects which emerged from F. M.’s seeds may not be related to the above. Could you spare me one or two of the perforated seeds if you still possess them to exhibit at the Entom. Soc. with their beetles & cocoons?³

I propose to work up F. M’s observations into a paper for our next meeting entitled “Notes on Brazilian Entomology”.⁴

Yours sincerely, | R. Meldola.

Were the living beetles & the cocoons found in the box or packet containing the seeds?