98 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — March 2nd, 1898. — Mr. G. H. 

 Verrall, Vice-President, in the chair. The following were elected 

 Fellows of the Society : — Miss Margaret Fountaine, 7, Lansdowne 

 Place, Bath ; Mr. J. H. Carpenter, Shirley, St. James's Eoad, Sutton, 

 Surrey ; Mr. G. 0. Day, Parr's Bank House, Knutsford ; Mr. F. E. 

 Filer, 58, Southwark Bridge Boad, S.E. ; Mr. B. Hamlyn-Harris, The 

 Conifers, Hambrook, Bristol ; Mr. E. J. Lewis, 4, Elwick Boad, Ash- 

 ford ; Mr. T. Maddison, South Bailey, Durham ; Mr. W. H. Mousley, 

 Orchard House, Mundesley ; and Prof. Enzio Beuter, Helsingfors, 

 Finland. Lord Walsingham exhibited a series of the larger and 

 more striking species of Xyloryctiuaa, a subfamily of the Gelechiida?, 

 especially characteristic of the Australian fauna. The series illustrated 

 the life-histories and the great disparity in colour and form between 

 the sexes of many species. He also gave an account of the family, 

 chiefly from notes by Mr. Dodd of Queensland, with especial reference 

 to the habits of the larvae, which live in holes in tree-trunks, to which 

 they drag leaves in the night for the next day's consumption. Mr. 

 Gahan exhibited a locust, Acridium cegyptium ( = tartaricum), taken in 

 a house in Hanover Square, and probably imported in vegetables. Mr. 

 Kirkaldy exhibited species of water-bugs, including Enicocephalus culicis 

 and Gerris robustus, both taken for the first time in Mexico. A dis- 

 cussion arose on the reported occurrence of the San Jose scale, Aspi- 

 diotus perniciosus, in Great Britain. Mr. B. Newstead stated that 

 during nine years' work on Coccidaa he had never once met with this 

 species among scale-insects taken in this country and sent to him for 

 identification. It was impossible even for an expert to distinguish 

 it, without careful microscopical preparation and examination, from 

 among the thirty or more known species of Aspidiotus, and any attempt 

 to identify it on imported fruit by naked-eye observation, or with a 

 hand-lens, was therefore quite impracticable. The risk of its dis- 

 tribution by being imported on fruit was small ; there was, however, 

 much more likelihood of its introduction on plants. At the same time, 

 he saw no reason to suppose that it would be more injurious in this 

 country than the common Mytilaspis pomorum ; in America the San 

 Jose scale had several generations in the year, sometimes as many as 

 five, but in this country it would probably conform with the habits of 

 all other scale-insects at present investigated, and become single- 

 brooded. 



Marchl6th. — Mr. B. McLachlan, F.B.S., Vice-President and Trea- 

 surer, in the chair. Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of Acanthia 

 inodora, A. Duges, from Guanajuato, Mexico. This insect, a congener 

 with the common bed-bug, was found in fowl-houses, where it attacked 

 poultry. Mr. Wainwright exhibited a locust found alive in broccoli at 

 Birmingham. The insect was identified by Mr. Burr as Acridium 

 cegyptium. Mr. Tutt showed a series of captured examples of Calligenia 

 miniata, varying in colour and the amount of black markings, one 

 example being a clear yellow and another orange. The Secretary 

 exhibited part of a series of holograph letters, &c, which he had dis- 

 covered among old papers in the Society's Library, including commu- 

 nications from Kirby, Spence, Darwin, Hope, Yarrell, and many other 



