species, all probably new ; and there \Yas also a species of Sirex extremely 

 like S. gigas, but differing from it in the constricted base of the abdomen. 

 The collection was sent from Hiogo. 



Mr. Verrall exhibited a specimen of Syrphus lasiophthalmus with a 

 pecuHar malformation of tibia and tarsus, those members appearing as if 

 they had been broken and badly united afterwards. He considered it was 

 due to an injury received just after the insect had emerged from the 

 puparium, when the parts were soft. 



Mr. M'Lachlau remarked that he had observed an analogous malformation 

 in a sawfly (Hylotoma fasciata). See Proc. Ent. Soc. 1 867, p. xcix. 



Mr. Staintou exhibited an aspen-leaf sent by Lord Walsingham from 

 Fort Klamath, Oregon, pierced by a multitude of small oval holes, each 

 indicating the place where a small mining Micro-Lepidopterous larva of the 

 genus Aspidisca had cut out its case when full fed. He had figured a smaller 

 leaf so attacked on the cover of the ' Entomologist's Annual' for 1872. He 

 also exhibited living and dead examples of the perfect insect bred from 

 cases sent to him by post by Lord Walsingham. 



Papers read. 



Mr. Edward Saunders read " Descriptions of twenty new species of 

 Buprestidge." 



Mr. H. W. Bates read a memoir " On the Longicorn Coleoptera of 

 Chontales, Nicaragua," chiefly drawn up from materials collected by Mr. 

 Thomas Belt near the mining village of Santo Domingo, in lat. 12° 16' N., 

 long. 84° 59' W., nearly midway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 

 in the forest region of the lower levels. Of the 242 species enumerated 

 133 were peculiar to Chontales, 38 were found also in Mexico, 5 also in the 

 West Lidian Islands, 5 also in the United States, 24 also in New Granada 

 and Venezuela, 22 also in the Amazon Eegion, 10 also in South Brazil, and 

 5 were generally distributed in tropical America. Of 129 genera among 

 which the species were distributed, only 7 were found also in the Old World, 

 but 95 were universally distributed in tropical America. An analysis of 

 these materials elicited two general facts of much interest: firstly, the homo- 

 geneity of the type of the insect fauna of the forest region of tropical 

 America, extending over probably 45 degrees of latitude; secondly, the 

 existence of a distinct northern element whose metropolis is Central 

 America. The author strongly condemned crude attempts at generaliza- 

 tion, such as were exhibited in some recently-published papers on the 

 geographical distribution of Coleoptera, because in nearly all cases they 

 were based upon insufiicient e^dence, and were untrustworthy on account 

 of the uncertainty of the true generic position of the materials. 



