SOCIETIES. 93 



original and useful work than the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomo- 

 logical Society." 



Fehruarii 8«/t.— The President, Mr. S. J. Capper, F.L.S., F.E.S , 

 in the chair. The Rev. R. Freeman gave a lecture entitled 

 "Elementary Biology and Anatomy of Insects," in which he traced 

 the connecting links from the protoplasm amoeba to the perfect 

 insect, describing in detail the organs of nutrition, the nervous 

 system, breathing organs, &c., of insects. The lecture was fully 

 illustrated by diagrams from the author's preparations. Mr. John 

 "Watson, of Manchester, exhibited specimens of lielenois teutonia and 

 B. nlsea from Australia, and showed transitional forms from the New 

 Hebrides, proving that these two species must now be considered as only 

 local forms of the one. He also showed Etirycus cressida and form 

 from North Queensland. The Rev. A. M. Moss exhibited a curious 

 bronze-coloured variety of Amphidasys prodromaria captured by himself 

 at Windermere. Mr. Gregson, a box of asymmetrical specimens of 

 Lepidoptera, the collection including two fine varieties oi Arctia caia the 

 fore wings of one specimen being very different. — F. N. Pierce, Hon. Sec. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society. — January 

 15th, 1897. The President, Dr. Sharp, in the chair. Mr. Fleet exhibited 

 a good specimen of Cleonus nebulosus, a large weevil, from the crop of 

 a stone-curlew purchased in the market. It was suggested that a 

 probable locality for both bird and beetle was Brandon. Dr. Sharp 

 exhibited a fine mass of the cocoons of Aphomia socieila. picked up in 

 the neighbourhood ; also some remarkable dipterous larvre, viz. an 

 undescribed Tahania larva, from the New Forest, with feet disposed 

 all over the body, and somewhat allied to Tahanus spodopterus (he 

 thought it might be a larva of Atylotns) ; larva of Scenopinus fenestralis 

 from Bucks (he called attention to the importance of ascertaining 

 whether this larva is injurious as commonly supposed, or whether it is 

 present in woollen goods only to destroy other larvs, such as those of 

 the clothes-moth) ; larva of Microdon, found in Portugal by Colonel 

 Yerberry, which shows no sign of segmentation ; also Idolothrij)s 

 spectrum, sent by Mr. Froggatt from New South Wales. 



Januartj 29(A. — The President in the chair. The President ex- 

 hibited a specimen of a large click-beetle of the genus ChaJcolepidius, 

 and showed that if the anterior parts were separated from the after- 

 body and then replaced, the front part would be propelled to a 

 distance from the body ; he therefore concluded that the explanations 

 ordinarily given of the jumping of the click-beetles was unsatisfactory ; 

 and he suggested that it might be found that the act really depended 

 on an elasticity arising from the mode in which the parts of the meso- 

 thorax and elytra were shaped and fitted together. Mr. Rickard read 

 a paper upon "Jumping Beans." He said that probably the larva, 

 after consuming all the internal portion of the seed, attacked the 

 shell ; in this endeavour to obtain food it pulls at the remaining shell, 

 and the efforts supply the motive-force to which the jumping is due. 

 He thought that the actual motion was merely mechanical, and 

 determined by the formation of the euphorbiaceous seed. 



Birmingham Entomological Society. — November 16th, 1896. — 

 Mr. G. T. Bethuue-Baker, President, in the chair. Exhibits : — By 



