328 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Machimus atricapillus, the first true Asilid he had seen there ; Helo- 

 jjjiilus trivittatus ; and Cynomyia alpina, a species which is marked 

 doubtfully British iu Mr. Verrall's list, but was confirmed by Mr. 

 Grimshaw iu the Annals of Scot. Nat. Hist. 1897, who took it in 

 South Ayrshire. Mr. Bradley had taken twenty in his garden, all 

 males ; he said that it was so much like Musca voinitoria that it was 

 probably overlooked on that account. Mr. A. H. Martineau, Asilus 

 crahroniformis from Nevin, North Wales; also a smaller species of 

 Asilus, with a Li/ccena alexis in its grasp. Mr. Bethune-Baker, two 

 drawers from his collection, containing a portion of the genus Pieris. 

 Mr. P. W. Abbott, Deilepldla (jalii, from Wallasey, where the larva was 

 found this year by Mr. Victor Wilson ; and a short series of Lithosia 

 caniola, from South Devon, August, 1897. Mr. G. H. Keniick read 

 a paper upon " Mimicry," in which he pointed out all the difficulties 

 of the present theories, and came to the conclusion that it was 

 impossible for us to arrive at any positive conclusions until we had 

 more evidence. He exhibited a large number of examples of Batesian 

 and Milllerian mimicry, exhibitiug both phenomena in a particularly 

 perfect state. — Colbran J. Wainwkight, Hon. Sec. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society. — A meet- 

 ing of the Society was held on Oct. 15th. Mr, Rickard exhibited a 

 specimen of Chmrocampa celerio, taken recently in Cambridgeshire, and 

 an imago of Caipocapsa saltitans, reared from tlie so-called " jumping 

 bean." He also exhibited some small ichneumons, bred from a 

 probably deltoid larva ; he said that they are peculiar in that they do 

 not kill their host, and he believes that they inhabit the alimentary 

 canal of the caterpillar, and escape by the anus. He has seen the 

 caterpillar carrying the cocoon made by one of these larvse, holding it 

 with the anal claspers for some days, as if to incubate it. Mr. Farren 

 exhibited a var. of Diantlicecia conspersa from Shetland, Cidaria conjlata 

 var. albo-crenata from Rannoch, and TcBniocampa gothica var. (jothacina 

 from Loch Laggan. Dr. Sharp exhibited several Soutli American cocoons 

 of two species, one bombycoid, the other psychid. One of the former 

 contained a large ichneumon cocoon, iu which again were smaller ones 

 of another species, while two others had been used by a mason wasp 

 and a leaf-cuttiug bee respectively to make their nests in. The 

 psychid cocoons were tubular, about four inches long and half an inch 

 thick, the females being largest, aud it appeared that the female 

 moths never leave the cocoon, for one of them was found hardly free 

 from the large chrysalis, embedded in soft scales, and almost maggot- 

 like in appearance. Although the larvfe spend a large part of their 

 life iu these cocoons, yet a large proportion were found to have been 

 killed by parasites. Mr. Bedford exhibited three varieties of Epinephele 

 hifperantluis, taken near Brockenhurst at the end of Juue ; in the first, 

 a female belonging to the "lanceolate" type, all the parts of each ocellus 

 were correspondingly enlarged, the central pupil in some being con- 

 siderably elongated ; in the second, a male, the aberration afi'ected the 

 fore wings only, and consisted in a tendency for the yellow band of each 

 ocellus to spread over the surface of the wing, forming irregular and 

 asymmetrical blotches, the rest of the ocellus being quite normal ; the 

 third case was that of a male in which the right hind wing only was 



