1896.] 103 



from the Soutli of France, made by Mr. Frank Bromilow. Professor Meldola 

 invited discussion upon the address delivered by Mr. Elwes, as retiring President, on 

 the Geographical Distribution of Butterflies, at the last Annual Meeting. He 

 remarked that he had not himself had time to consider the paper in an adequate 

 manner, but he thought that the discussion might lead to a useful expression of 

 opinion if the speakers would deal with the question as to how far the scheme of 

 distribution advocated by Mr. Elwes was borne out by a comparison with other 

 Orders of insects. He was of opinion that in considering schemes of Geographical 

 distribution, the results arrived at were likely to be of greater value the wider the 

 basis on which they rested, and he therefore suggested that the question might also 

 be taken into consideration as to how far it was justifiable to draw conclusions from 

 the consideration of one division or one Order only. He did not offer these 

 observations in a spirit of adverse criticism, but simply with the object of setting 

 the discussion going. Dr. Sharp remarked that Geographical distribution consisted 

 of two divisions : firstly, the facts ; secondly, the generalizations and deductions 

 that may be drawn from them. He thought that as regards insects generally our 

 knowledge of the facts was not yet sufficient to warrant many generalizations. 

 Still the impressions of those who have paid attention to particular groups of 

 insects are even now of some importance, though at present based on incomplete 

 knowledge. He thought the Rhopalocera would prove to be a somewhat exceptional 

 group in their distribution. Notwithstanding that Australia and New Zealand are 

 80 poor in them this was by no means the case with their Coleoptera, Australia 

 being very rich, and its fauna of Coleoptera being very distinct. He thought that 

 if Lepidoptera generally were well collected in Australia and New Zealand, it would 

 be found that this Order was not so poor in species as was supposed. He instanced 

 the case of the Sandwich Islands, where it was supposed that there were very few 

 species of Lepidoptera, and yet some 500 species, or perhaps more, had been recently 

 found there by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, who had been sent to investigate the islands 

 by a committee appointed by the Royal Society and British Association. Mr. 

 McLachlan said he was of opinion that no definite demarcation of regions existed, 

 but that all the regions overlapped ; in any case, the retention of Palaeartic and 

 Nearctic as separate provinces was not warranted on Entomological data. He 

 thouglit that at the close of the Glacial period some insects instead of going north 

 were dispersed southwards, and that the present Geographical distribution of some 

 forms might thus be accounted for. The discussion was continued by Mr. Osbert 

 Salvin, Mr. J. J. Walker, Herr Jacoby, Mr. Champion, Mr. Elwes, and Professor 

 ileldola. The Rev. T. A. Marshall contributed a paper, entitled, " A Monograpli of 

 British Braconidcs, Part VI." Mr. J. W. Tutt read a paper, entitled, " An attempt 

 to correlate the various systems of Classification of Lepidoptera recently proposed 

 by various autiiors." In tiiis paper he criticized the opinions recently expressed by 

 Mr. G. F. Hampson and Dr. T. A. Chapman, in certain papers published by them. 

 A discussion ensued, in which Mr. Elwes, Professor Meldola, and Mr. Tutt took 

 part. 



March Qth, 1895. — The President in the Chair. 



The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of tlie Society : — Mr. H. T. 

 Dodsou, of Ivy House, New Maiden, Surrey ; Mr. Herbert Massey, of Fairfield, 



