92 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 
excessive variability of this family Mr. Bates says, ‘The difficulty 
which we find in defining generic groups in the family is explicable 
on the grounds that when there is much of this adaptive modi- 
fication, all the corporeal parts concerned must have become to a 
high degree variable.” The division of the family according to the 
absence of wings, or their presence in one or both sexes, appears to 
be highly artificial, There are now 540 species described. 
ENTOMOLOGIOAL SocIETY. 
At the September meeting, Mr. McLachlan exhibited three 
insects new to Britain—WSialis fuliginosa, Pictet (Neuroptera), Ste- 
nophylax infumatus, McLach, and Rhyacophila ferruginea, Hagen? 
(both Trichoptera). Prof. Westwood gave the Society an account 
of the Exhibition of Economic Hatomology which was opened in 
Paris on the 15th of August last. Among the more interesting 
subjects were a great variety of bee-hives of novel construction, 
some of which could be sold for 1 fr. 25 ¢., and a large collection of 
silks contributed by M. Guerin-Méneville. Mr. Stevens exhibited a 
collection of Coleoptera from Damara-land made by Mr. Andersson. 
October.—Some insects taken by the Rev. G. F. Browne, in an 
ice-cave in Switzerland, were exhibited by Mr. McLachlan. Dr. 
Waliace exhibited the various stages and entered into copious expla- 
nations respecting the Ailanthus silk-worm (Bombyx cynthia), its 
life-history and culture. Mr. Scudder (Secretary ofthe Boston 
(U.S.) Natural History Society) exhibited a gigantic fossil species 
of Ephemera from the Devonian Locks of New Brunswick. He 
also gave a short account of Mr. Truvelot’s attempts to cultivate at 
Philadelphia the Bonbyx Polyphemus, another silk~producing moth. 
Mr.8. 8. Saunders (Consul-General at the Ionian Islands) exhibited 
numerous specimens in spirits of the Strepsipterous genera Xenos 
and Hylecthrus in all their stages. A continuation of Mr. Wilson’s 
paper on the South Australian Buprestidee was read. A paper 
was algo read by Mr. McLachlan on “ New, or little known, Genera 
and Species of Trichoptera from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and 
the Malayan Archipelago.” 
Noyember.—A new moth taken at Manchester was exhibited by 
Mr. Bond; it has been named Acidalia mancuniata (!) by Dr. 
Knages. Some remarkable photographs of various minute para- 
sites by Dr. Maddox were also exhibited. The following Coleoptera 
new to Britain were exhibited :—Myrmedonia plicata, Er., taken 
at Bournemouth, Aigialia rufa, Fab., Lithocharis castanea, Grav., 
and Monotoma 4-foveolata, Aubé. The papers read were: by the 
President, “On Calamobius and Hippopsis ;” by the Rev. Douglas 
Timins, “On the Localities of European Lepidoptera ;” by Captain 
J. Mitchell, “Remarks on Captain Hutton’s paper on the Silk- 
