]^^Q ' [Novemher, 



Mr. F. Smith stated that he had commixnicated with Sir J. Lubbock, who, in 

 his turn, had written to the President of the Linnean Society, respecting the state 

 of the Linnean Collection of insects, and had received an assurance that its pre- 

 servation should be attended to. 



Mr. MeLaehlan read a statement on the condition of the so-called Linnean 

 Collection and its present scientific value. He expressed his surprise that Mr. 

 Smith should have taken the course he had done, instead of first communi- 

 cating privately with the Officers of the Linnean Society, who are responsible 

 for the safety of the Collection. The opinion that it had been allowed to fall 

 into a state of complete neglect was so contrary to Mr. McLachlan's own experience 

 from frequent examinations during a period of fifteen years, as to induce him to 

 make an independent inspection two days previously. He found nothing whatever 

 to justify Mr. Smith's statement or the course taken by the Society. There were no 

 traces of mites, Psoci, or Anthreni, and in fact nothing but a few traces of mould, 

 probably the result of some former neglect. He did not consider the collection of 

 any special importance, owing to the treatment it had received before it came into 

 the possession of the Linnean Society, and any value it now had, could only exist if 

 it be maintained in connection with Linne's annotated copies of his own (and other) 

 works in his library. 



Mr. Stainton said he had examined the collection the previous day, and found 

 those portions of it in which he was specially interested in the same condition as 

 when he first consulted them thirty years ago. If Mr. Smith was of the opinion he 

 stated to the Meeting on the 4th ulto., he did right in bringing the matter under 

 the notice of the Linnean Society. 



Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited specimens of Hipparchia Semele from the New 

 Forest, Lewes, the Righi, and Russia, in illustration of the variation on the under- 

 side mentioned at the previous Meeting. 



Mr. MeLaehlan exhibited the eggs and yoimg larva) of Ascalap>htis longicornis, 

 found by M. E. L. Ragonot in the Forest of Lardy near Paris ; the eggs were arranged 

 (as usual) in two rows on a grass stem, to the number of twenty-three in each row. 

 He also exhibited (on behalf of Mr. Edwin Birchall) the specimen of Heliothis 

 scutosa captured in Ireland by Mr. Campbell, and recorded in the present No. of 

 this Magazine. 



Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of Amara ivfma from Chobham. 



Mr. W. A. Forbes exhibited a collection of insects from the neighbourhood of 

 Chamounix, captured at an elevation of 5 — 6000 feet. 



Mr. Rutherford read the description of a new species of Goliath beetle (which 

 was exhibited) from West Africa, which he proposed to call Ceraiorrhina Batesi. 

 He also exhibited an example of Hhonirileosoma Rnspinn, nearly a third of the wings 

 of which (on both surfaces) was hyaline, and considered it had been bred in that 

 condition. 



Prof. Wood-Mason read notes on the hatching j^eriod of Mantidm in East 

 Bengal, and on the discovery of a stridulating apparatus in this family of Orthoptera, 

 consisting of the serrated margin of the tegmina. He stated that he had discovered 

 an instance of viviparity in the Orthoptera in Panesthia javanica (Blattidai), from 

 the abdomen of a $ of which he had extracted young insects, proving that in this 

 case there is no egg-capsule. 



