37 



Mr. Westwood observed that the Ptinus rubellus, Marsh., was very destructive to 

 various copdiments. 



Mr. Lubbock made some remarks on the reproduction of ihe Daphnia, observing 

 that the females laid two sorts of eggs, one kind being fertile without impregnation : 

 he knew similar cases occurred in Aphides, &c., and wished to hear from the 

 Members present of any instances in Lepidoptera or other orders. 



Mr. Westwood said Lasiocampa Quercus and Orgyia antiqua had been known to 

 produce fertile eggs without male intercourse. Mr. Ingpen had found unim- 

 pregnated females of Psyche fusca produce fertile eggs, as recorded in Stephens' 

 ' Illustrations.' 



Mr. Douglas had known instances of the eggs laid by unimpregnated females of 

 Fumea nitidella having hatched. 



Mr. Slainton said that Mr. Robinson had had a brood of larvae hatched from 

 the eggs laid by a virgin female of Arctia Caja, but the larvae did not live 

 many days: in answer to a question, put by Mr. Waterhouse, as to the 

 grounds on which this particular female was asserted to have been destitute of 

 sexual intercourse, Mr. Robinson stated that the fact was most indisputable, 

 as he only had one larva of the species, which was bred alone, and had produced 

 the female in question. 



Mr. Hudson said that two of his friends had observed Liparis dispar to produce 

 fertile eggs without copulation. 



Mr. Westwood stated that a most valuable paper had been published by Herr 

 Lederer in the Vienna Transactions, four years ago, on the investigation of the larva 

 of the Geometrae, he considered it would be a great addition to our knowledge of the 

 British Geometrae to go through the list and note the characters by which Lederer's 

 genera differed from those of Stephens, and publish the same in our own ' Proceedings' 

 or ' Transactions.' 



Mr. Douglas believed that M. Guenee's great work on the Geometrae was ready 

 for publication, and might answer the purpose suggested by Mr. Westwood. 



Mr. E. Sheppard observed that M. Lacordaire's fourth volume of the ' Genres des 

 Coleopteres' was nearly ready for publication, and that the plates of the first three 

 volumes would be published with the fourth. 



Mr. Armitage exhibited some Coleoptera, mostly from the Dardanelles and Mount 

 Olympus, including a Lethmo, allied to, but apparently distinct from, cephaloles ; a 

 beautiful species of Cardiophorus ; and a fine series of minute Malachii. 



Mr. Westwood made some observations on the approximation of genera, auH 

 remarked that, on the separation of Megacephala from the Cicindelidse, the latter 

 became a group by itself. 



Mr. Waterhouse denied that any real links existed in Creation between any two 

 well-defined genera. In Mammalia a great many animals were pointed out as links 

 between various groups ; but when such animals, with their superficial resemblances, 

 came to be really examined, they were invariably thrust further away from each 

 other: it was, he contended, the same through the whole of Creation. 



Mr. Lubbock could not admit that such links never occurred, and mentioned the 

 two large genera of Crustacea, Calanus and Pontella, as afifording species which 

 apparently militated against Mr. Waterhouse's views. 



Mr. Wollastou observed that, a few years ago, Carabus and Calosoma were 



