Ixx 



Insects are represented, and even the Ai'achnida and Myriapoda. 

 In the variety, which I have just mentioned as a great 

 desideratum, the volume will be declared superior to many of its 

 predecessors. We have papers by Sir John Lul)bock and 

 Mr. Cameron on larvae of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera 

 (Tenthredinidse), W'ith reference to the much-debated subject of 

 protective resemblance. We have also a paper full of interesting 

 observations on the Insects of Southern Africa, by Mr. Mansel 

 Weale ; one, of a similar character, by that philosophical 

 observer Dr. Fritz Miiller, on Brazilian Butterflies and Moths, 

 and one containing original and suggestive observations on the 

 hairs of some of our British Hymenoptera, by Mr, Edward 

 Saunders. We have further, in the fourth part, just published, 

 an important paper on several hitherto unobserved pomts of 

 structure and function in the Mantidge, by Mr. Wood-Mason, 

 whose instructive expositions on this and other subjects have 

 formed an interesting feature of om- Evening Meetings throughout 

 the year ; and lastly, we have a paper on Economic Entomology 

 by our lady member, Miss Ormerod. The other papers are 

 systematic and descriptive, but one of these may be excepted as 

 including considerations of more general interest than dry 

 description, namely, that of Mr. Butler on the natural affinities of 

 the Lepidopterous family, Egeriidce, in which the novel view is 

 put forth, supported by adduced facts, that the true position of 

 these " clear-whiged Sphingidos " is not, as hitherto supposed, 

 near the hawk-moths, but at the other end of the sub-order, 

 between the Pyrales and the Gelechiidte. Questions like these, 

 involving the true appreciation of the natural affinities of large 

 groups, are of true scientific importance, and it is to be hoped that 

 Mr. Butler's hypothesis will be well discussed by Lepidopterists. 

 Abroad, as well as at home, the progress of Entomology 

 appears to me to have been marked by the profusion of published 

 papers on descriptive Entomology rather than by the appearance 

 of works of more important character, such as great monographs 

 or philosophical treatises. This Addi-ess would, however, be very 

 incomplete if I were to omit mention of the steady continuation of 

 those two valuable serial works, Mr. W. H. Edwards' ' Butterflies 

 of North America,' of which the 7th part of the 2nd volume 

 has appeared, and which contains a vast and growing mass of 

 original information regarding the life-histories, and especially 



