1903. I 



177 



in 1834, and signed " G. R. Gray, Secretary, pro tetn." Mr. Willoughby Gardner 

 exhibited nest cells of Omnia xanthomelana from Conway, North Wales. He said 

 the species, one of our rarer mason bees, places its beautifully constructed pitclier- 

 shaped cells at the roots of grass, usually four or five together. There is no previous 

 record of the nest having been found since Mr. Waterhouse discovered and described 

 it from Liverpool about sixty-five years ago. Mr. M. Jacoby, Arsoa longimana, 

 Fairui., and A. aranea, from Madagascar ; also Megalopus melipona. Bates, and M. 

 pilipes, from the Amazon, which bore a remarkable resemblance to a bee. Mr. A. 

 J. Chitty, a water-beetle new to Britain, viz., Hi/droporus hilineatus, Sturm, dis- 

 covered by Mr. Edward Waterhouse among some specimens of Hydro-poms given 

 by Mr. Chitty to him as H. granularU. The specimens were taken at Deal in 

 1891, and probably all records of granularis from Deal related to this species. He 

 also exhibited a specimen of the rare Trechus rivularis {incilis, of Dawson), taken 

 at Wickcn Feu iu August, 1900. Mr. O. E. Jausou, specimens of NeophcBdimu.i 

 melaleucus, Fairm., a goliath beetle from Upper Tonkin, and remarked that the 

 white colouring was derived from a dense clothing of peculiar semi-transparent 

 coarse scales, which were apparently easily removed by abrasion, and seemed to 

 partake of the nature of the " fugitive " scales found upon freshly-emerged speci- 

 mens of Heniaris and other Lepidoptera. The President read a communication 

 from Mr. G. F. Leigh, on " Protective Besemblance and other modes of Defence 

 adopted by the Larv® and Pupae of Natal Lepidoptera.^' He also showed a speci- 

 men of Grapta c-alhum in the attitude of prolonged repose, together with specimens 

 of Ancba moeris set in different ways to illustrate its probable resting position ; he 

 said that probably the " C " or " comma " on the under-surface of the hind-wings 

 in butterflies belonging to the genus Polygonia {Orapta) represents in bright, 

 strongly-reflecting " body-colour," the light shining through a semicircular rent in 

 a fragment of dead leaf — the rent pi'oduced when a little segment of leaf has broken 

 away along a curved line, but still remains connected with the rest — -across the 

 chord of the arc. Unless such a segment remains pi'ecisely in the plane of the 

 leaf light may pass through a curved and often a semicircular slit-like window. 

 Professor Poullon also exhibited a pair of Ilypolimnas misippus taken " in coitu " 

 by Mr. Horace A. Byatt, B.A., near his highland house, at an height of 4500 — 

 5U00 feet, in Dedza, Central Angoniland, British Central Africa. The specimens 

 are remarkable in that the female is excessively worn and old, far more so than the 

 male. Such an observation tends towards the conclusion that pairii-.g occurs more 

 than once in the life of an individual of this species. Mr. G. A. J. Eothney com- 

 muicated " Descriptions of twelve new genera and species of Ichneumonidce, and. 

 three new species of Ampulex from India, by Peter Cameron." 



June 3rd, 19U3. — The President in the Chair. 



Mr. G. C. Champion exhibited numerous specimens of Coccinella distincta, 

 taken in the pine woods of Woking. They were found, as usual, running about 

 the ground in company with Formica rufa, and were perhaps wanderers from some 

 other locality. Mr. Donisthorpe said the species was still common at Weybridge 

 in the nests of Formica rufa, and that he had observed it also at Bexhill, while 

 Mr. Chitty noted its former occurrence in Blean Woods in great numbers. The 

 history of the larvae, he said, had not been worked out. Mr. H. St. J. Donis- 



