SOCIETIES. 77 



otherwise of the species. The glands, though better developed in the 

 male, existed also in the female. Professor Meldola, however, supposed 

 them to be characters of sexual attraction, as laid down by Fritz 

 Muller, and therefore not affecting the question of distastefulness. — 

 Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited a series of the perfect insect of Gluttula 

 fiisca, Hpsn., together with ears of maize (locally called mealies), 

 showing the damage done by the well-grown larva of the species, 

 which lives in the hrst place in the stem, eating the pith from the 

 ground, and afterwards attacking the cobs, and eating from the inside 

 into the bases of the unripe grains, which then change colour and 

 shrivel up. He also exhibited: Gynaniza main (male). Walk., and a 

 drawing of the larva ; Nudaurelia menippe (male), Feld., and drawing 

 of larvffi ; Bombi/comorpha hifascia, Hpsn., circlet of eggs, cocoons, and 

 figure of larva ; Phissana flava, Feld., food, cocoon, and figure of larva; 

 Gonometa postica (male and female). Walk., cocoon (poisonous), and 

 male and female larva figures; Henacha smilax (male and female), 

 Feld., pupa, cocoon, figures of larva, and an enlarged segment to show 

 markings; Metarctia rafesccns, Walk., and figure of larva; TcRniopyga 

 sylva}ia,Wsdk., and figures of larva ; liigema ornata, Walk., and figures 

 of larva — all the foregoing specimens and figures being received from 

 Miss Frances Barrett, Buntiugville, Transkei, South Africa. — Mr. W. 

 L. Distant exhibited two specimens of Coleoptera which had reached 

 him alive from the Transvaal — one Anthia thoracica, Thunb., now 

 dead, the other, Braclujcems granosus, Gyll., still living, sent by Mr. 

 Eobert Service, of Dumfries, who received them from Sergt. Peter 

 Dunn, of the volunteer company of the Scottish Borderers, which 

 regiment was in the vicinity of Krugersdorp. The genus Anthia ex- 

 tends to the Southern Palaearctic region, and there seems little doubt 

 that these species could be easily acclimatized there. All they require 

 at home is the run of a good palm or orchid-house. — Mr. E. Adkin 

 exhibited a series of Acidalia acersata. The parent moth (a banded 

 female, the male parent not being known) was taken at Lewisham in 

 June, 1900. Of the resulting larvae about one-half fed up rapidly, and 

 produced imagines in the autumn of the same year — a very unusual 

 circumstance in the habits of the species; the remainder hybernated 

 and produced imagines in June of tlie following year, thus occupying 

 the normal time in completing their metamorphoses. The proportion 

 of individuals following the female parent in the two portions of the 

 brood were almost equal, the percentages being approximately fifty- 

 three banded in the autumnal emergence as against fifty-eight in the 

 spring, but in point of sex the disparity was great, over 65 per cent, of 

 the autumn moths being males as against fully 72 per cent, females 

 in the spring portion. — Mr. G. C. Champion exhibited long series of 

 Leptura stragulata, Germ., and Strangaiia pubescens, Fabr., from the 

 pine-forests of Aragon and Castile, showing the great variation in 

 colour of the two species in these districts, whereas the allied forms 

 occurring in the same places, viz., L. rubra, Linn., L. distigma, 

 Charp., L. unipunctata, Fabr., and L. sangiduolenta, Linn., were per- 

 fectly constant; also Dennestes aurichaicem, Kiist., which he and Dr. 

 Chapman had found everywhere in abundance in the old nests of the 

 processionary-moth (Cnethocampa processionea, Linn.) on the pines in 

 these forests. — Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited in illustration of his 



