THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 295 



common gnat." I was at Leominster in the autumn, and 

 observed swarms of gnats of an evening careering up and 

 down the window-panes, and producing, through the multitude 

 of busy wings, a loud humming noise. When the lights were 

 extinguished for the night the noise subsided ; and in the 

 morning the winged pests were either scattered or had 

 departed : they had not been carefully destroyed, as at 

 Oxford. This species was Culex cillnris of Linneus, 

 described by Mr. Walker in ' Insecta Britannica,' vol. iii. 

 p. 247. It is of a redder colour and is much smaller than 

 Culex annulalus, another species that frequents houses, and 

 may often be seen at rest on window-panes and elsewhere 

 within doors, waving its black-spotted hind legs when 

 annoyed. I think the fact of female gnats alone tormenting 

 man is not confined to a single species, but consider it a 

 general character of blood-sucking Diptera. I am not pre- 

 pared to accept the chimney hypothesis for their appearance. 

 — Edward Newman.] 



New Part of the General Catalogue of British Insects. — 

 This is by the Rev. T. A. Marshall, and comprises the 

 ChrysididaSj Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, and Evaniidae. 



South London Entomological Society. — The first exhibition 

 of specimens took place at Dunn's Institute, Newington 

 Causeway, on Thursday, the 12th December, from 7 to 10 

 o'clock in the evening, and was in every respect successful. 

 The company was large, indeed inconveniently large, for the 

 room ; so much so, that it has been determined to hold future 

 meetings in the Assembly Room, 104, Westminster Bridge 

 Road. The insects exhibited were of great interest, more 

 particularly the varieties of Lepidoptera, and the life-history 

 of other groups. It would exceed the limits of a single 

 number of the 'Entomologist' to give a list of species 

 exhibited, but, through the kindness of the assiduous and 

 most courteous Secretary, Mr. Barrett, I am enabled to 

 publish the following summary : — 



Lepidoptera. — By Messrs. Barrett, Bidwell, Boden, Bond, 

 Ramsay Cox, Chaney, Chitty, Cowley, Earn, Hoey (life- 

 histories), Healey (Tineae), Drs. Gill and Lucas, Messrs. 

 A. Jones, Pawsey, Shearwood, Howard Vaughan, Rev. J. 



