48 i-J"^y' i^?'' 



Kareen Hills, Biinnah : —Fapilio Zaleucus, Hew., Fapilio Adamsoni, Smith, Papilio 

 P sp. (male and female), and I^ymplialis I\icholii, Smith. 



Mr. T. R. Billups exhibited several specimens of an ant found at Kew, 

 frequenting a species of palm from Tropical Australia, and v\hich had been deter- 

 mined as Tapinoma melanucephalum, F. ; also living specimens of Carahus auratus, 

 from the Borough Market, and of a species of Blaps from Northern Africa. 



Mr. Waterhouse exhibited a specimen of a Brazilian Locust, Conocephalus, 

 ? sp., which he had for some time preserved alive, and which had only died that same 

 morning. He called attention to the change of colour which he had observed in the 

 eyes of this insect ; in a bright light they were dirty white or horn-coloured, with a 

 black dot in the middle ; but at night, or if the insects were confined in a dark box, 

 they became altogether black ; shortly after death, also, the eyes became black. 

 Mr. McLachlan observed that he had noticed a darker spot in the centre of the eye in 

 Ephemerid(B, and in other Neuroptera. The discussion was continued by Dr. Sharp 

 and others, but no one seemed to be able to account for the alteration in question. 



Lord Walsingham exhibited specimens of Cateremna terebrella, Zk., a species 

 lately taken by himself in Britain, and recorded in Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiii, p. 82. 



Mr. Meyrick read two papers " On Fyralidiiia from Australia and the South 

 Pacific " and " Descriptions of some exotic Micro-Le'pidoptera." In these papers 

 about sixty new species were described. A discussion ensued, in which Dr. Sharp, 

 Mr. Stainton, Mr. McLachlan, and others took part. Mr. Meyrick stated that, as 

 far as the Pyralidina were concerned, Australia could not be regarded as a separate 

 region, for a large number were not endemic, but appeared to have been introduced 

 from the Malay Archipelago. The method of this immigration seemed doubtful. 

 Mr. Meyrick was of opinion that the insects flew very long distances, and effected a 

 settlement through their food-plant being widely distributed and common. He 

 instanced the undoubted immigration of certain Australian species into New 

 Zealand, a distance of 1200 miles. Mr. Stainton adduced the instance of Margarode.s 

 unionalis, which is a South-European insect, feeding on the olive, yet is occasionally 

 found in Britain. Mr. Meyrick, in connection with his papers, exhibited Oxychirota 

 paradoxa, Meyr. (unique specimen representing the family Oxychirolidcs), Ephar- 

 pastis dcedala, Mcyr., and Mixophyla erminea, Moore. Mr. Meyrick also made some 

 observations on the distribution of the insect fauna in the various regions of 

 Australia; he said that it appeared to be more or less different in certain defined 

 portions of the Continent, which might be roughly regarded as oases in the midst 

 of desert districts : all his observations, however, had tended to upset Mr. Wallace's 

 theory that Eastern and Western Australia were originally separated, as the 

 gradations in the insect fauna from cast to west were quite gradual; in Western 

 Australia the Tineina were the only gi-oup well represented by peculiar endemic 

 forms. 



Mr. Pascoe read a paper " On tlie genus Byrsops," a genus of Curculionidce. 



The President announced that Lord Walsingham's collection of Lepidoptera and 

 larv8e,i'ecently presented to the nation, would be exhibited in the Hall at the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, until the end of June. — W. W. Fowlee, 

 Mon. Secretary. 



I 



