lOS THE rONTOMOT-OOTST's KErORn. 



tlie morning of the 23rci most of them had become black, and by night 

 all were Idack excepting four. They left their host tail foremost, their 

 tail ends all pointing away from the body of their late host, and 

 changed to nymphs with the ventral surface upjjermost. Some ten or 

 twelve emerged on the 6th of July and by the next morning there 

 were about forty of them out : the antennfe of the ^ s were branched, 

 and the branches kept opening and closing as the insect walked about. 

 I l)elieve they belong to the genus Chirocera of the family Chalrididdc, 

 which follows next to the IrJineinnouhhic in Westwood's classification. 

 I found Iavo larvae infested ; the one I kept under observation had 

 forty-four of these parasites." On J)ccendier 1st Dr. Chapman read 

 tlie paper published on page o of the current volume of the Utrovd, 

 and in connection therewith Mr. Farren exhibited Swifts, Noctuas, 

 Geometers and Deltoids having hair-tufts either on their A\ings, 

 bodies, or legs, &c. On May 12th Mr. F. Y. Theobald, M.A., F.E S. 

 read a paper on " Parthenogenesis in Insects," of which the following 

 is a short epitome. Having ])riefly alluded to the usual methods of 

 reproduction, a short account Avas given of exceptional cases. The 

 C'oelenterata were instanced as sliowing metagenesh, which is an alter- 

 nation of sexual and a-sexual forms, while ixirthenogenesis is an alter- 

 nation of two sexual forms and not, as is often supposed, of sexual 

 and a-sexual forms. Partlienogenesis occurs amongst the Hemijitera- 

 liomoptera, Diptera, Le2)idoptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera. The 

 Aphides were dealt with at considerable length and the differences 

 betAveen the oviparous and viviparous generations pointed oxit ; reference 

 was also made to the Coca'dae and iJierines. In Dij)tera tAvo remarkable 

 cases of larval parthenogenesis or j^aedogftiesis occurring in Cecldotiiyia 

 and Chiroiiomiis were mentioned. Coming to Hymenoptera, allusion was 

 made to the Hive-bee. Tlie queen apparently is only fertilized once in 

 four or live years, but goes on laying eggs that pi-oduce ^ a and ?s 

 until the spermatic influence is exhausted, after Avhich she produces 

 drones only. Examples are not numerous among I.epidoptera, partheno- 

 genesis only occurring in the Fsi/rhiddc, in Solenohia and in Bondiyx 

 mori; in the latter it is probal)ly a recently acquired habit. In 

 Coleoptera Stylops Avas instanced. In concluding Mr. Theobald descrilied 

 the structure and development of the true OA^a and ovaries of insects, 

 and shoAved that pseud-OA-a arise from the pseud-ovaries in the same 

 Avay, and that the pseud-ovary is not a germ gland but a rudimentary 

 OA'ary, haA'ing the poAver of precocious and spontaneous dcA-elopment. 

 IVIr. Eickard is the President and ]\Ir. W. Farren the Hon. Secretary 

 for the j)i"esent year. 



At the meeting of the Lancashire anh Cueshike Entojiolouicai, 

 Society, on Feb. 12th, 1894, I\Ir. Stott exhibited Calosoma inquisitor, 

 Geotrnpes typhoens and G. reritah's, taken in Carmarthenshire, in 1893. 

 Mr. Kobert NeAvstead, F.E.S., read a paper on " Correlations of Plants 

 and Insects," in which he discussed tlie fertilization of the j'ucca, and 

 explained the process as described by Prof. C. V. Rilej', in Insect Life, 

 adding notes from his own observations, on the insects Avhich frequent 

 the floAvers in this country. He also alluded to the gall-making Bra- 

 rltyscelidue of Australia, a group of Corcidac jDeculiar to that country, 

 and to the galls of Di2)Josis rnniicis, suggesting it as quite possible that 

 botanists have described malformed " tubercles " of some species of 

 Rninex, as he had found a great number of " tubercles " sAvollen by this 



