July— ScptemlHT 1SS5.J 



PSrCHE. 



311 



PSYCHE. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., JULY-SEPT. 1885. 



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PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



6 June iSS3.^-Prof. J. O. Westwood. the 

 honorary life-president, read an address, 

 upon taking the chair, in which he briefly 

 reviewed the progress entomologv had made 

 in times within his remembrance. 



Mr. Frank Chesliire, who was present as a 

 visitor, made some observations on section- 

 cutting of the probosces of lionev-feeding 

 insects, as referred to hy Prof. Westwood in 

 his address. He recommended that the insect 

 to be operated upon should be kept fasting 

 for some time and then fed upon honey mixed 

 with gelatine impregnated with some highly 

 colored dye; the insect should be immediate- 

 ly decapitated and the head rapidly cooled; 

 it should then be embedded in gelatine and 

 the section cut by means of the microtome. 

 The mouth-passage is then easily seen from 

 the presence of the dye. Mr. Cheshire then 

 made some extended remarks on his various 

 observations upon the minute structure and 

 anatomy of the honey-bee, stating that many 

 of his results differed mucli from the gen- 

 erally received authoritative statements. 



With legard to the tongue of the honey-bee, 

 many authorities regarded it as a tube 

 through its entire lengtli, others as a gutter 

 or trough, while in reality it is a trough on 

 tlie upper side at the apex and a tube for the 

 rest of its length ; the structure of the 

 extreme apex (Reaumur's "l^outon"), — about 

 which there existed so much difference of 

 opinion. — was easily made out by the use of 

 the means Mr. Cheshire recommended. 



4juLY 1SS3.— Miss E. A. Ormerod exhibit- 

 ed a bunch oi Atherix ibis, Fabr., found on a 

 sprig of alder \Aliiiis'] overhanging water at 

 Hampton Court by Mr. J. Arkwright. The 

 swarm of flies measured about 6 in. [15 cm.] 

 long by 3 in. [7.5 cm.] broad, and consisted 

 of many thousand specimens. 



Mr. E. A. Fitch called attention to a figure 

 of a similar swarm of this species in the 

 Compte-rendu of the Societe entouiologique 

 de Belgique, for July 4th, 1S74. 



Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited specimens of 

 four of the five known species of American 

 fiilgoi-iclue. Three were from Central Amer- 

 ica. 



Mr. G. C. Champion stated that in Cen- 

 tral .\merica he had kept forty or fifty speci- 

 mens of fiilgoridac alive for da\'s. and 

 liad seen no trace of luminosity, neither did 

 they stridulate: the evidence of the natives 

 also was quite against these insects being 

 iuminous. The fiilgoridae were very slug- 

 gish in their habits, Mr. Champion observ- 

 ing that he commonly found specimens on 

 the trunks of trees, where they sometimes 

 rentained for days; he had never seen a 

 speci;nen on the wing. Mr. Champion also 

 r.'lated that he had not infrequently found 

 larvae attached to and feeding on the white 

 cottony secretion so abundant about some of 

 the smaller fulgoridtie ; he had found as 

 many as three larvae attached to one imago. 



Prof. Westwood commented on the great 

 interest of this last announcement, remark- 

 ing that the three cases of lepidopterous par- 

 asitism on the fiii^oridae already recortled 

 b\ him (Trans. Entom. soc. Loud., 1S76, p. 



