SOCIETIES. 



147 



{PijrophorHs), a genus contaiaiiig a lavge iiuinbsr of exfcromaly closely- 

 allied forms, imporfcaut specific characters were detected in the 

 genitalia of the males. One species, Meristhus scobinula, Gaud., was 

 common to Central America and China. He also exhibited a specimen 

 of Eudfctus ijlraiuli, Redt,, found by himself at Mendel, in the Austrian 

 Tyrol, in July last. This is a rare European species of Staphylinidtp, 

 a black variety of which (/7. wJdtel, Sharp) had once been found in 

 Scotland, on the summit of Ben-a-Bhuird. Mr. Jacoby showed a 

 Halticid beetle, taken in Mashonaland by Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, and 

 remarkable for a prolongation of the hind tibia beyond the tarsal 

 articulation, into a very long serrated process. Mr. Elwes showed a 

 series of Papilionidae of the machaon group, from North America, 

 including P. machaon and P. oreyonia from British Columbia, P. brucei, 

 P. bairdii, and 7'. zolicaon from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and the 

 latter species from British Columbia. He stated that there was a 

 tolerably complete gradation from P. onyoiiia (= viachaon) thvongh 

 P. brucei to P. zolicaon, that none of the characters which had been 

 relied on for separation were of real value, and that the structure of 

 the genitalia afforded no assistance. Although P. bairdii appeared to 

 be very distinct in appearance and habits, it was associated with the 

 other forms in Colorado, and Mr. W. H. Edwards stated that he had 

 bred both P. bairdii and P. oregonia from eggs of the same female of 

 either of the two forms. Mr. J. J. Walker mentioned that he had 

 bred P. zolicaon from larvffi found on Situn, at Esquimault, Vancouver 

 Island, and that neither larva nor pupa was distinguishable from that 

 of P. machaon. Mr. 0. H. Latter read a paper on " The Prothoracic 

 Gland of Dicranura vinula, and other notes," in continuation of his 

 previous communications on the subject. A fresh use of the formic 

 acid secreted by the larva was described ; it was employed to alter the 

 silk secreted in spinning the cocoon, in order to convert it into the 

 well-known horny mass. If the acid was prevented from actiug, as by 

 supplying the larvae with bits of blotting-paper soaked in an alkali, to 

 be utilised in making the cocoon, the silk thus protected from the 

 action of the acid retained its usual fibrous structure. Sir George 

 Hampson communicated a paper on " The Classification of two sub- 

 families of Moths of the Family Pyralidge— the Hydrocampinae and 

 Scopai'iange." 



March 11th.— M.V. Roland Trimen, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 

 Mr. Henry Hague, care of the Clydesdale Bank, 80, Lombard Street, 

 E.C., was elected a Fellow of the Society. Mr. Butterheld, present 

 as a visitor, exhibited a series of thirty- three male and six female 

 Phigalia pedaria, taken near Bradford, Yorkshire, on Feb. 14th-17th, 

 1897. Twenty-one males were typical in having a greater or less 

 development of the four transverse bars, The remaining twelve were 

 without bands, and varied in colour from black to smoky olive ; they 

 were decidedly less in point of size, ranging from l^V in. to l^V in., 

 as against lj\ in. to l^-i in. in the banded forms, and were also poorer 

 in scales and "'slightly deformed. He had only met with this variety 

 once before in the last twenty years, and suggested that the eruption 

 of small, black, and depauperized forms might have been produced by 

 dryness and want of food in the larval conditions, the trees having 

 be^n extensively defoliated in the preceding year. Mr. Tutt, in the 



