V 



1 88 • January, 



Mr. C. O. Watcrhouse did not admit the force of tlie arguments used by Prof. 

 Westwood as proTing that the insect could not be Dipterous. 



Prof. Westwood entered into an explanation of the terms under which the 

 Hojic collection was bequeathed to the University of Oxford, and the Professorship 

 of Invertebrate Zoology established there, witli an analysis of the extent and value of 

 tlie collection as it now existed, through accumulations from donations and purchases 

 of the most important nature. The Oxford Commissioners Jiow proposed that when 

 the chair should become vacant, it should become united with a Readership in 

 Invertebrate Zoology, making it equivalent to the chairs of Hinnan and Comparative 

 Anatomy, as now existing. Against this suggestion the widow of the late Kev. F. 

 W. Hope* had protested, as opposed not only to the spirit of the bequests made by 

 her husband, but also to the clause of the deed under which the Professorship was 

 held. 



Mr. McLachlan said that entomologists sliould feel grateful to Prof. Westwood 

 for having brought this subject before the Society : it was greatly to be desired that 

 the chair should continue to be held by an entomologist, both as carrying out the 

 wish of the founder, and as a guarantee that the magnificent collections would be 

 cared for, and made available for the purposes intended by the Rev. F. W. Hope. 



Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited ants (apparently of the genus Atta) which he had 

 found at Pisa, and which accumulated round their nests the shells of two species of 

 Helix, all of wliich were empty when he found tliem. Also a specimen of a moth 

 (apparently the ? of Orgyia antiqna) which had been placed in his hands as an 

 instance of transformation, without having passed through the pupa-state. 



Mr. W. C Boyd exhibited an example of Cklaria tristata, in which both pos- 

 terior-wings were congenitally absent, a singular variety (or aberration) of what 

 was apparently Aspilates citraria, and a Noctua that might be a melanic form of 

 Hadena detitina ; the latter from North Devon. 



Mr. Distant communicated " Notes on the habits of various Indian Ilemiptera," 

 on the authority of a correspondent of Mr. F. Moore. 



Dr. Fritz Miiller communicated a photograph and notes on the transformations 

 of a Brazilian Dipterous insect, especially remarkable for the dimorpliism exhibited 

 by the females, one set of which had the mouth-organs fitted for honey-sucking, as 

 in the males, in the other set they were fitted for blood-sucking. 



Dr. Buchanan White communicated the first part of a paper on the Ilemiptera 

 collected on the Amazons, by Prof. Trail. 



Mr. F. Bates communicated "Descriptions of new species of Tenehrionidce from 

 Madagascar." 



Mr. C. O. Watcrhouse read " Descriptions of new Coleoptera from East Africa 

 andJUfadagascar. ' ' 



Mr. Butler communicated a paper (illustrated by an exhibition of presci'ved 

 larvae from Lord Walsingliam) " On the affinities of the British moths usually 

 placed in the genus Acroui/cta." He referred these to various old (mostly) Hilb- 

 nerian genera, and the result of his analysis was as follows : — A. rumicis and auri- 

 coma should be transferred to the Arctiidce, leporina and aceris to the Liparidce, 

 megacephala, pui, tridens, strigosa, &c., to the NotodontidtB, whereas only aliii and 

 ligustri remained in the NoctuidcB. 



^ * The death of the widow of the Rev. F. W. Hope has since theu appeared in the " Times " 

 obituary. 



