190 [January, 



December Zth, 1877.— J. W. DuNNiNO, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., Vice-President, in 

 the Chair. 



Mr. Distant exhibited two rare species of West African Hemiptera-IIeteroptera, 

 yiz., Tetroxia Beaiivoisi, Fairmairc, and OncOcephalus siihspinosus, A. and S., both 

 only known hitherto from the mntilated typical examples. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a series of both sexes of Macropis lahiata, captured by 

 Mr. Bridgman, near Norwich; the S had hitherto been extremely scarce. Also a 

 specimen of Rophites 4-spi>iosus, a genus and species of Aculeate Hymenoptera new 

 to Britain, captured at GrLiestling, near Hastings, by the Rev. E. N. Bloomflold ; it 

 is an insect of wide distribution on the continent. 



Mr. Meldola exhibited photographic enlargements of photographs, taken by 

 Mr. E. Viles, of Wolverhampton. Two of these represented the mouth parts of a 

 bee and fly respectively, enlarged ten diameters from the original negatives. He 

 further exhibited an acoustic apparatus, illustrating the action of the stridulating 

 apparatus of Pterlnoxylus, as described by Mr. Wood-Mason at the November 

 meeting : the apparatus consisted of a bell, thrown into vibration by a violin-bow, 

 and the sound enhanced by the application of an air-chamber. He also exhibited a 

 specimen of Gongylus gongyloides, alluded to at the previous meeting as a mimicking 

 insect. 



Mr. Wood-Mason detailed the results of further investigation of the stridulating 

 apparatus of scorpions : he had detected at the base of each pair of legs carrying 

 the apparatus, a well-defined pore opening into the interior of the leg. 



Mr. F. Smith mentioned that he had noticed stridulation to exist in a small 

 ■weevil {Acalles roboris) found at Deal, but the sound was scarcely audible, unless 

 several were confined in the same box ; the sound is produced by the friction of the 

 segments of the abdomen against the under-surface of the elytra. His attention 

 had been called to this subject in consequence of the discovery by Mr. Wollaston of 

 a musical Acalles in Madeira. 



Mr. Dunning called attention to a paper recently published in the Proceedings 

 of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, by Mr. Neville Goodman, M. A., on a striking 

 instance of mimicry between a dipterous insect CLaphrlaJ , und a, hornet (T^espa 

 orientalis), both found in the same districts. 



The Secretary directed attention to a letter in " Nature " (Nov. 15th, 1877), 

 detailing some experiments upon Abraxas grossulariata, tending to shew that the 

 insect was sensitive to sound. 



Mr. F. Smith read Descriptions of new species of Hymenoptera collected by 

 Prof. Hutton at Otago, in New Zealand, and exhibited the insects. 



Mr. Butler read a paper on the Sphinges and Bombyces collected by Prof. Trail 

 on the Amazons in the yeai's 1873 — -1875. 



Dr. Sharp communicated Descriptions of eight new species of Cossonides from 

 New Zealand, and of a new genus and some new species of Ehyncophora from the 

 Sandwich Islands. 



