xlix 



Mr. M'Lachlan said that enloniologists should be much indebted to 

 Professor Westwood for having brought this subject prominently before the 

 Society. It was much to be desired that the successor to Prof. Westwood 

 in the Hope Professorship should be specially an entomologist, both as 

 carrying out the wish of the founder and as a guarantee that the magnificent 

 collection at Oxford should be well cared for and made available for the 

 purposes for which its former possessor bequeathed it to the University. 



Prof. Westwood, with reference to the affinities of the genus Poli/cteiies, 

 Westw. (Thes. Ent. plates 38, 39 and 40), which Mr. C. O. Waterhouse at 

 the last meeting of the Society had regarded as closely allied to the Nycteri- 

 hiidiB, and especially to the genus Strebhi, remarked that the structure of 

 the mouth in this genus was entirely that of the Heteropterous Heraiptera ; 

 the antennfe also agreed with those of the insects of that suborder, and the 

 pair of short alary appendages were similar to those of the common bed-bug 

 [Cimex lectalarius). Besides which the nature of the transformations of the 

 genus Polyctenes had been clearly proved by Prof. Westwood's observations 

 and figures, plate 39, figs, b, c and e, to belong to the section with semi- 

 complete pupse (" Metam. dimidiata"), and could not possibly be assigned to 

 that section of the " Metamorphosis perfecta" with inactive pupa which had 

 been especially named "pupa coarctata" by Linnaeus, consisting of the 

 order Diptera, and to which, as shown by Prof. Westwood (Trans. Zool. Soc, 

 vol. i., pi. 3(3, figs. 22 to 25), Xycteribia is also referable. 



Mr. C. 0. Watei house stated that he was perfectly aware that Professor 

 Westwood's specimen had a claw within a claw as if about to shed its skin ; 

 but in his opinion it did not follow that, because about to change, it is an 

 Hemipteroas insect. It might develop a two-winged fly resembling the 

 new genus which he had described. Mr. Waterhouse used the expression 

 "two-winged fly" advisedly, because this group may have to be separated 

 from the true Diptera. 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited some ants, apparently a species of Attn, 

 which he had found in large numbers at Pisa on the lawn around the 

 Baptistry and Cathedral. These ants did not make any hill of earth about 

 their nests, but collected around the entrance hundreds of small empty 

 shells of Helix caperata and H. viryata. He was unable to offer any 

 opinion as to the object of these singular collections. The shells were so 

 numerous and lay so closely together that he could easily take them up by 

 scores at a time. 



Mr. Weir also exhibited a specimen of an Oryyia [? antiqita), stated, on 

 the authority of Mr. H. S. B. Gates, to have come out of the larval skin 

 without passing through tiie pupal state. 



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