64. 



Societies. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society: November 

 IZth, 1896.— Dr. Sharp, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Jones exhibited a local imago of Smerinthus tilicB with both its wings 

 deformed and correlative variation of marking. Mr. Rickard read a paper discussing 

 some questions in connection with the formation of Lepidopterous pupse, making 

 reference to the so-called " Poultoii's Line " and the criticisms of Dr. Chapman and 

 Mr. J. W. Tutt thereanent. He said tliat the proboscis of the pupa of the Death's 

 Head Moth is 40 mm. long, that of the imago is but 14 or 15 mm. He suggested 

 that the brevity might be in connection witli the habit of extracting honey, and also 

 that the reason why it was so rarely found in bee-hives in (his country might be 

 found in the construction of the hives. The object disclosed by the last moult of a 

 Lepidopterous larva resembles neither a caterpillar nor a pupa, but is much more 

 like the imago. There is also present a thick coating of gelatinous-looking material 

 enveloping the entire organism ; the external surface of this material rapidly hardens 

 and takes on the special form of the pupa. As the lower portion of it solidiGes it 

 shrinks away from the enclosed imago, with the result that the pupal imago is left 

 loose inside the pupal envelope, the only organic connection seeming to be the 

 tracheae that connect the imaginal with the pupal spiracles. Proof of the accuracy 

 of this statement is afPorded by tlie presence of wing-cases on the pupae of wingless 

 female moths. Thus the female of the " Vapourer," for instance, possessed imaginal 

 wings of average size at the last larval moult, such wings being subsequently 

 re-absorbed. The contradictory statements of Professor Poulton and Mr. Tutt are 

 easily reconciled if we suppose that the Professor's observations were made at an 

 early stage of pupal existence, while Mr. Tutt's were made immediately before 

 emergence of the imago. 



January 15fh, 1897. — The President in the Chair. 



Mr. Fleet exhibited a good specimen of a large weevil (Cleonus nehuJosns) from 

 the crop of a stone curlew purchased in the market ; it was suggested that a probable 

 locality for botli bird and beetle was Brandon. Dr. Sliarp,a fine mass of the cocoons 

 oi Aphomia sociella, picked up in the neighbourhood ; also some remarkable Dipterous 

 larvae, viz., an undescribed Tabanid larva from the New Forest, with feet disposed 

 all over the body, and somewhat allied to Tabanus spodopterus — he thought it 

 might he the hirva of Atylofits ; larva of Scenopinus fenestralis from Bucks; he 

 called attention to the importance of ascertaining whether this larva is injurious as 

 commonly supposed, or whether it is present in woollen goods only to destroy other 

 larvae, sucli as those of the clothes' moth ; larvae of Microdon found in Portugal by 

 Colonel Yerbury, which show no sign of segmentation ; also Idolothrips spectrum 

 sent by Mr. Froggatt from New South Wales. 



January 2dth, 1897. — The President in the Chair. 



The President exhibited a specimen of a large click-beetle of the genus Chalco- 

 lepidius, and showed that if the anterior parts were separated from the afterbody 

 and then replaced, the front part would be propelled to a distance from the body ; 

 he therefore concluded that the explanations ordinarily given of the jumping of the 



