136 THE ENTOMOLOOIST. 



consisted of two divisions — firstly, the facts ; secondly, the generali- 

 sations and deductions that may be drawn from them. He thought 

 that as regards insects generally .our knowledge of the facts was not 

 yet sufficient to warrant many generalisations. Still the impressions 

 of those who have paid attention to particular groups of insects are 

 even now of some importance, though at present based on incomplete 

 knowledge. He thought the Ehopalocera would prove to be a some- 

 what exceptional group in their distribution. Notwithstanding that 

 Australia and New Zealand are so poor in them, this was by no means 

 the case with their Coleoptera, Australia being very rich, and its fauna 

 of Coleoptera being very distinct. He thought that if Lepidoptera 

 generally were well collected in Australia and New Zealand, it would 

 be found that this order was not so poor in species as was supposed. 

 He instanced the case of the Sandwich Islands, where it was sup- 

 posed that there were very few species of Lepidoptera, and yet 

 some five hundred species, or perhaps more, had been recently 

 found there by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, who had been sent to investi- 

 gate the Natural History of the islands by a committee appointed 

 by the Royal Society and the British Association. Mr. McLachlan 

 said he was of opinion that no definite demarcation of regions existed, 

 but that all the regions overlapped ; in any case, the retention of 

 Palfearctic and Nearctic as separate provinces was not warranted on 

 entomological data. He thought that at the close of the glacial 

 period some insects instead of going north were dispersed southwards, 

 and that the present geographical distribution of some forms might 

 thus be accounted for. The discussion was continued by Mr. Osbert 

 Salvin, Mr. J. J. Walker, Herr Jacoby, Mr. Champion, Mr. Elwes, and 

 Professor Meldola. The Rev. T. A. Marshall contributed a paper 

 entitled " A Monograph of British Braconida3, Part VI." Mr. J. W. 

 Tutt read a paper entitled *' An attempt to correlate the various 

 Systems of Classification of the Lepidoptera proposed by various 

 authors." In this paper he criticised the opinions recently expressed 

 by Mr. G. F. Hampson and Dr. T. A. Chapman, in certain papers 

 published by them. A discussion ensued. 



March Qth. — Professor Raphael Meldola, F.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — 

 Mr. H. T. Dobson, of Ivy House, Acacia Grove, New Maiden, Surrey ; 

 Mr. Herbert Massey, of Fairfield, Fog Lane, Didsbury, Manchester ; 

 Mr. Thomas M. McGregor, of 30, North Methveu Street, Perth, N.B.; 

 Mr. Sidney Crompton, of Salamanca, Santa Cruz, Teneriffe ; Mr. 

 Benjamin Hill Crabtree, of The Oaklands, Levenshulme, Manchester : 

 and Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, of Salisbury, Mashonaland, S. Africa. 

 Mr. B. G. Nevinson exhibited a long series of HeliutJds j)cltigera. He 

 stated that the specimens were bred from larvfe found on the Dorset- 

 shire coast during July, 1894, feeding on the flowers of Ononis arvensis, 

 which were extremely luxuriant : a few also were taken on Hyosci/amus 

 nifjer. He added that all the larvae went down by the end of July. 

 The first emergence took place on August 20th, and they continued 

 coming out at the rate of about five a day, through the rest of that 

 month and September ; only five emerged in October, and the last one 

 appeared on November 11th. Mr. Nevinson said that not one larva 

 was ichneumoued, and only three or four imagines were crippled. Mr. 



