( xcv ) 



the specimens labelled by him, as had been quite correctly 

 pointed out by Dr. Verity, and the name aegon having been 

 given to one of these by Schiffermiiller as " first reviser," the 

 other species retained the name argus by exclusion. 



Mr. Rowland-Brown inquired who was responsible for 

 the use of the name argus in Tutt's " British Lepidoptera," 

 and Mr. Wheeler admitted with regret that he was; this, 

 however, was by no means the first occasion on which the 

 change had been made. 



A Mantis and Entozoon.— Mr. E. E. Green exhibited a 

 specimen of a Mantis from Ceylon, together with a Gordius 

 worm that had emerged from it. He said that the occurrence 

 was not an uncommon one, and often took place in public on 

 a dinner-table. The insect would fly into the room, attracted 

 by the lights, settle upon the table, and— after a few pre- 

 liminary contortions — proceed to void one of these curious 

 worms, which sometimes attained a length of five or six 

 inches. Mr. Green remarked that the generally accepted 

 theory of the development of a Gordius was that the eggs 

 are laid in water or in damp spots on the edge of water, and 

 that the young worms bore their way into the bodies of 

 aquatic larvae. When such infested larvae are subsequently 

 devoured by other predaceous aquatic insects or by fish, the 

 worm completes its development in the new host. In the 

 case of the Mantis some other procedure must occur. The 

 Mantis was not itself an aquatic insect and had no oppor- 

 tunity of preying upon aquatic larvae. Any one who had 

 observed a Mantis feeding and had noticed the painstaking 

 manner in which it masticates every particle of its food, 

 must wonder how the immature worms — if they are actually 

 introduced in this manner — can escape destruction in the 

 process. 



Mr. Green had observed the emergence of one of these 

 worms from the body of a large Pentatomid bug. 



A long discussion followed. Mr. G. A. K. Marshall said 

 that he had received Tsetse flies, and many African locusts 

 similarly infected. Dr. Burr added that the common earwig 

 was also liable to infection. Mr. C. B. Williams said that 

 he had had living specimens of Mantis which drank water. 



