SOCIETIES. 151 



A. Radcliffe Grote, A.M., was then read by Mr, Tutt. It dealt at 

 some length with the identical and parallel species which existed in 

 the two continents. The evidence pointed to a continuous land con- 

 nection between the nearctic and pala?arctic regions. Mr. Tutt said 

 he had no doubt that the two faunas had been distributed from the 

 circumpolar region while tbere existed a subtropical climate there. 

 It was announced that the ' Proceedings ' for 1896 were now ready for 

 distribution to members. 



Jpril 8th. — The President in the chair. Mr. South exhibited the 

 following Georaetridffi from Europe and Eastern Asia : — Eustroma 

 reticulata and var. cerosa, the latter larger and more golden yellow. 

 Cidaria sUaceata, Chinese specimens, both larger and smaller than 

 European. C. cort/lata, Eastern examples, very typical. C. picata, 

 some Chinese specimens, larger and more yellow than European. 

 jSlclanippc proccUata, some were larger than European, and some with 

 grouind colour suffused with fuliginous. Mr. Lucas, specimens of an 

 exotic earwig, Amisnlabis annulipes, which could be distinguished from 

 other British species by two white joints near the tip of the an- 

 tennas. The distinctly ringed femora give it its specific name. 

 It was found in 1894 at Tavistock, but the specimens exhibited came 

 from Surrey [figured ante, p. 125] . Mr. Adkin, a fine series of red 

 forms of Ticniocampa f/racUis from the New Forest and Rannoch. Mr. 

 Tutt read a paper entitled " Some Considerations of Natural Genera, 

 and Incidental References to the Nature of Species." — Hy. J. Turner, 

 Hon. Report Sec. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 February 12th, 1897. — Dr. Sharp, President, in the chair. The 

 President showed a remarkable stridulating apparatus in a larva 

 of the coleopterous genus Passalus, recently sent by Mr. C. Hose from 

 Borneo. Tiiis larva possesses two pairs of largely-developed legs, 

 while each leg of the third pair remains a mere rudiment, but is much 

 altered in form, so as to be like a small paw, with four or five chitinous 

 digits at the extremity wherewith to play on a striated area on the 

 coxa of the leg before it. He remarked that Passalid larvas are very 

 abundant in logs in the tropics, and that Mr. Champion had informed 

 him that he had heard stridulation proceeding from such logs in 

 Panama. The President also said it was difficult to imagine what use 

 such ah elaborate organ could be to larvje, especially when they led a 

 life of the kind mentioned. He also demonstrated the stridulation of 

 Coleoptera by means of a large individual of the longicorn genus 

 Batocera, which produced a rather loud sound when the appropriate 

 movements were made. Mr. Fleet exhibited some Coleoptera, in- 

 cluding the blister-beetle and Apion astragali, taken at Cambridge 

 some years ago by Mr. Rippon. 



Februari/ 26th. — Annual Meeting. — Dr. Sharp in the chair. Prof. 

 I^ewton, the Professor of Zoology, was elected an honorary member. 

 Mr. Harmer, of King's College, was elected President for the following 

 year. Dr. Sharp exhibited a larva of one of our common Geotrupes, 

 and called attention to its stridulating organ, in which one pair of legs 

 work upon the pair in front of them. He said that this beetle, in the 

 imago state, also possesses a stridulating organ, but it is situated in a 



