( xxxiii ) 



Mr. W. G. Sheldon exhibited several specimens of a 

 Noctuid moth, described by Dr. H. Guard Knaggs, as Agrotis 

 helvetina (Entomologist's Annual, 1872, p. 115). He had 

 purchased them at the sale of the late Dr. Mason's collection, 

 in which they Avere labelled as light varieties of Noctua augur, 

 to which species he thought in fact that they should be 

 referred. 



Mr. A. H. Jones exhibited examples of butterflies taken by 

 him last year in Majorca showing injury to the wings, caused 

 in his opinion by the attacks of lizards. He remarked that a 

 large proportion of the few butterflies met with in the island 

 were mutilated, especially at the posterior part of the hind- 

 wings. A GonejJteryx cleopatra and a Pararge megxra had 

 semicircular pieces removed, while another specimen of the 

 latter showed that quite half the hind-wings had been removed 

 as though cut by a pair of scissors. 



Dr. G. B. LoNGSTAFF observed that these butterflies appeared 

 to be much moi-e irregularly treated than the species he had 

 noticed to be similarly attacked in India, and Mr. W. G. Sheldon 

 agreed with the exhibitor as to the cause of the damage, 

 observing that it was unusual where he had collected to find 

 insects attacked in this peculiar way where lizards did not 

 exist. 



The Rev. F. D. Morice mentioned that remarkable and 

 apparently constant characters, both generic and specific, were 

 to be found in the calcaria of Hymenoptera ; and asked if any 

 use was made of the corresponding structures for classifying 

 and diagnosing insects of other Orders. He also referred 

 to the theories of various writers on the functions of 

 calcaria — e. g. Kirby and Spence regarded them as assisting 

 insects to walk and climb, but he did not think that this was 

 mainly, if at all, their function in the Hymenoptera, and had 

 only actually seen them used for toilet purposes, i. e. to remove 

 dust, pollen, etc. from other parts of the insects' bodies. It 

 was well known that bees and «wasps cleaned their antennae 

 with the calcaria attached to their front tibiae. Females of 

 many species belonging to almost every group of Hymenoptera 

 possessed remarkably pectinated (interior) calcaria on the hind- 

 legs. The development of this structure differed greatly in 



PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., II. 1906. C 



