xl 



Mr. Albert Miiller exhibited some photographs of American galls, sent 

 by Mr. H. F. Bassett, of Waterbury, Connecticut; namely, galls caused by 

 Cynips duricoria on Quercus bicolor, by C. spongifica on Q. tinctoria, by 

 C. strobilana and C forticovnis on other species of oak, by C. pedunculata 

 on Q. cocciuea, by C. ilicifolite on Q. ilicifolia; and by Ehodites bicolor, 

 R. radicum and R. verna, on Rosa Carolina. 



Mr. S. S. Saunders exhibited a living specimen of Eresus ctenizoides, 

 a large spider from Greece, of remarkable beauty : it was of a rich velvetty 

 black, -with a dull golden border to the abdomen. It was brought from 

 Syra, and its habit was to live under stones, and feed on large grasshoppers. 

 Owing perhaps to the smallness of the English grasshoppers, it had remained 

 without food since July. 



Mr. F. Smith mentioned that he had found on WooUacombe Sands, 

 North Devon, a silvery species of Asilus whose habit it was to prey upon 

 grasshoppers; the latter were numerous in the grassy spots adjoining the 

 sands, and were carried off by the Asilus, which flew with its prey down to 

 the sands, and there devoured it. The species has been determined by 

 Mr. Verrall to be the Asilus albiceps of Meigen, and belongs to Loew's 

 subgenus Philonicus, the only other described species of Philonicus being 

 the P. dorsiger of Wiedemann, from Egypt. Mr. Smith added that Asilus 

 crabroniformis was in swarms at WooUacombe, but appeared to confine its 

 attacks to small Diptera. 



Paper read. 



The following paper was read: — "A Monograph on the Ephemeridse" 

 (Part I. The Nomenclature); by the Rev. A. E. Eaton. 



After enumerating the various collections which he had had the oppor- 

 tunity of consulting, the Author gives a bibliographical history of the group 

 from the time of Clutius (1634) to the present day, indicating under each 

 book the species therein for the first time named and characterized, and 

 when possible the places where the type specimens if extant are deposited. 

 Then follows a list of all the described species arranged in the alphabetical 

 order of the genera ; together with remarks on the fossil species, and a list 

 of names of the fossils hitherto reputed to be Ephemeridse. In the next 

 portion of his paper, the Author gives the general characters and habits of 

 the Family, followed by Tables of the geographical distribution over the 

 globe of both genera and species, and arrives at the conclusion that " the 

 number of described recent species of Ephemeridfe is about 178, exclusive 

 of ten which are either hardly determinable or probably mere conditions of 

 well-characterized forms which have been otherwise named ; there are three 

 fossil species determinable." The whole of the recent genera and species 

 (including four new genera, and twenty-four new species) are then charac- 

 terized; and the descriptions are elucidated by numerous drawings of 



