( Ixxii ) 
brought for exhibition examples of {a) Bruclms pectinicornis, 
L. This beetle, as a rule, is looked upon as being introduced 
into Britain, and only to be met with in granaries and similar 
places; the specimen exhibited was, however, swept on an 
open hillside at Chipstead, Surrey, August 14, 1910: also 
(i) Badister bipustidatus, F., a variety of this common species, 
the usual black patches on the elytra being reduced to two 
small black dots; from Chipstead, May 8, 1910. 
Brachypterous Ants. —Mr. W. C. Crawley showed, with 
normal examples, a brachypterous $ of the ant Lnsius 
found at Oddington, near Oxford, in August 1900, at which 
locality about the same time were observed $ ? of L. niyer 
with short wings. Professor Wheeler has found similar 9 9 
of American ants with the abdomen containing a nematode 
worm. 
Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe remarked that Herr Mrdzek had 
recently shown that the short wings in 9 9 of Lasius alienus 
were caused by the ant being infested by a nematode worm 
of the genus Mermis, and he called them “ Mermithogynes,” and 
that Professor Wheeler had found this to be the case with 
short-winged 9 9 of L. neoniger in America. He now exhibited 
a short-winged $ of Teclinomyrmex alhipes, Smith, together with 
an ordinary winged ^ which he had recently taken at Kew, and 
suggested that the former might be caused in the same way : 
also ergatoid of the same species taken at the same time. 
Forel has described this form from specimens captured by 
the exhibitor, and suggests that they may be caused by the 
presence of parasite guests entertained by the Technoviyrinex 
in the same way as Pseudogynes are caused by the presence 
of Lomechusa with F. sanguinea. 
He further exhibited two forms of Prenolepis hraueri, sub- 
sp. donisthorpei, Forel, taken at Kew. A black form ^ ^ and 
taken in the Fern House and a red form from the Palm 
House. 
Bred Rare British Lepidoptera. —Mr. H. M. Edelsten 
exhibited series of the following rare British Heterocera, viz.: 
(a) Dianthoecia luteago, var. harrettii, bred 1910, from Devon 
larvae; (6) Tapinostola extrema, bred from Northamptonshire 
larvae, July 1910 ; (c) Tapinostola hellmanni, bred from larvae 
