58 



:|mm. ; Ptilium exaratuin, All,, f-|mm. ; Actidinm coarctatum, 

 Hal., -i-^mm,, etc. 



Mr. West also called attention to the Society's collections, eight 

 drawers of which he had placed upon the benches for inspection, 

 including the Diptera, the Neuroptera, the Orthoptera, the Hymen- 

 optera, and the Hemiptera. 



Mr. Pierson exhibited a cocoon of Samia cecropia, which he had 

 received from Brooklyn, U.S.A., where it had been collected. It 

 was cut open and contained a mass of cocoons of a Hymenopterous 

 parasite. 



Mr. Hy. J. Turner exhibited three pocket boxes containing speci- 

 mens of several groups of the Rhynchota and communicated the 

 following notes : — 



" In the first box are a number of species of the two families 

 Pe.ntato}ui<hr. and Scutelleridm. The species of the latter family 

 may easily be separated from those of the former by the fact that 

 the thoracic shield or scutellum is extremely large and usually 

 covers nearly the whole of the abdomen, the wings being concealed 

 beneath it as they are in the Coleoptera under the elytra. 



" In the PetUatoiiiidcr the scutellum is also large, usually more or 

 less regularly triangular in shape and attenuated posteriorly, the 

 apex reaching to about the base of the membrane of the wings when 

 folded in repose. The head and prothorax together form a regular 

 triangle. 



** These two families belong to the section of the Rhynchota 

 known as the Heteroptera, in which the forewings are partly mem- 

 branous and partly coriaceous. 



" In the second box are a few species of the Flatina group of the 

 l^iih/oridfr, or lantern-flies. They are remarkable for their resem- 

 blance to the Lepidoptera, but of course their mouth structure at 

 once separates them. 



" The third box contains, on the left side, several species of the 

 Tettu^onid', a group of leaf-hoppers, on the right side several species 

 of leaf-hoppers of the Jassime group, and in the centre a few 

 immature forms of Rhynchota species. Many immature forms in 

 this order are extremely brilliant in coloration, but this is very 

 evanescent, and usually disappears in all preserved specimens. 



" The species shown m the last two boxes belong to the section 

 Homoptera in which the wings are wholly membranous and not 

 divided into two parts, a membranous and a coriaceous, as in the 

 Heteroptera." 



