1854.] Linnean Society. 291 



them, while the Aphides parry the attack with their legs. On shaking 

 the plants and dislodging some of the Aphides, the latter were im- 

 mediately set upon by the ants below, which first broke their legs 

 and stripped them of their wings, and then carried them off. The 

 winged female ants are seen in June, not however using their wings 

 much in flight, but quivei'ing and shaking them as they walk along, 

 each accompanied by several workers. 



April 4. 

 Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



J. 3. Stain ton, Esq., was elected a Fellow, and Mr. Charles 

 IVPIntosh an Associate. 



Mr. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of Gentiana verna, L,, 

 recently received from its new locality at Galway ; and also of An- 

 dromeda tetragona, L. ; both of which had flowered on open peaty 

 banks in his garden at Clapham Rise. 



Read a paper entitled " Remarks relative to the Affinities and 

 Analogies of Natural Objects, more particularly of Hypocephalus, a 

 genus of Coleoptera." By John Curtis, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



Mr. Curtis commences his paper by a reference to the numerous 

 attempts made of late years to establish a perfectly natural system, 

 which, he believes, will never be attained. In our progress towards 

 the establishment of such a system, we are sure to find disturbing 

 forces, producing aberrant types of form, which, like discordant 

 notes in music, will not chime in anywhere ; and to this description 

 of animals belongs the anomalous beetle, exhibited by Mr. Adam 

 "White at the last meeting of the Society, which resembles so many 

 individual members of diff"erent families, yet agreeing with none, 

 that it has from its first discovery been a subject of speculation, in 

 which M. Desmarest, Dr. Gistl, Dr. Burmeister, M. Guerin-Mene- 

 ville, and Mr. W^estwood have taken part. M. Desmarest con- 

 sidered it as allied to the Silphida, and Dr. Burmeister and Mr. West- 

 wood are agreed that it is related to the Cerambycidce ; but after a 

 careful investigation Mr. Curtis is constrained to believe that it is 



