Societies and Academies

Abstract

LONDON Entomological Society, Aug. 2.—Sir Sidney Smith Saun-ders, vice-presdent, in the chair.—Messrs. Harold Swale and T. S. Hillman were elected ordinary members.—Mr. Stevens exhibited Tillus unifasciatus and Xylotrogus brunneus taken on an.oak-lence at Upper Norwood; and Mr. Champion exhibited Harpulus 4.punctatus, Dendrophagus crenatus, and other rare Coleoptera from. Aviemore, Inverness-shire.—Mr. Forbes exhibited a specimen of Quedius dilatatus taken by him with sugar in the New Forest.—From a despatch from H. M. Charge dj Affaires at Madrid, a copy of which was forwarded to the secretary through the Foreign Office, it appeared that the damage done this year by the locusts was considerably less than that of last year, owing to the number of soldiers which the Government had been able to employ since the war was over, in assisting the inhabitants of the districts where the plague existed, in destroying the insects. Specimens of the locust, as well as a number of earthen tubes containing the eggs, were forwarded to the society, and on examination they were found to be the Locusta albifrons, Fab. (Decticus albifrons, Savigny).—Mr. M'Lachlan. exhibited a series of thirteen examples of a dragon-fly (Diplax meridionalis, Selys), recently taken by him in the Alpes Dauphines, remarkable for the extent to which they were infested by the red parasite described by De Geer as Acarus libel-lulee. They were firmly fixed on the nervures at the base of the wing, almost invariably on the underside, and being arranged nearly symmetrically, had a very pretty appearance, the wings looking as if they were spotted with blood-red. He considered that the Acari must have attained their position by climbing up the legs of the dragon-fly when at rest —Mr. F. Smith read a note on Nematus gallicola, Steph., the Gall-maker, so common on the leaves of species of Salix but of which the male had, apparently, not previously been observed. From 500 or 600 galls collected by him in 1875, he had obtained a multitude of females, but only two males; and he thought that by perseverance in this way it would be possible to obtain the males of this and other allied species, of which the males were practically unknown, the female being capable of continuing the species without immediate male influence; and he argued from this that the long-sought males of Cynips might some day be found by collecting the galls early in the year. He expressed his belief that Mr. Walsh had proved, beyond question, the breeding of a male Cynips in America, although the precise generic rank of the supposed Cynips was disputed by some of the members present.—The president (ProL Westwood), who was unable to be at the meeting, forwarded some notes of the habits of a Lepi-dopterous insect, parasitic on Fulrora candelaria, by J. C. Bow-ring,, with a description of the species and drawings of the insect in its different stages, by himself. It appeared that the Coccus-like larvæ were found attached to the dorsal surface of the Fulgora, feeding upon the waxy secretion of the latter, and covering itself with a cottony substance. From its general appearance the Professor was disposed to place the insect among the Arcliidæ. It was discovered many years ago by Mr. Bowring, and he (Mr. Westwood) had noticed it at the meeting of the British Association at Oxford, in 1860, under the name of Epipyio-bs anomala.—The Rev. R. P. Murray forwarded a paper by Mr. W. H. Miskin, of Brisbane, containing descriptions of new species of Australian Diurnal Lepidoptera in his own collection. —Mr, Edward Saunders communicated the third and concluding portion of his synopsis of British Hemiptera-Heteroptera.