( xvii ) 



more important apparatus has been invented for marking the most delicate 

 sections of the various organs of insects; and here I may suggest that it 

 is much to be wished that the attention of some of our entomologists was 

 directed to the internal anatomy of insects, which, by the aid of the last- 

 mentioned apparatus, is shown out in a wonderful manner, and is much 

 facilitated, an example of which may be noticed in Sir John Lubbock's 

 plates of the internal anatomy of the head of the ant, and especially in 

 Mr. George Dimmock's inaugural memoir on the parts of the mouths of 

 the gnat and other dipterous insects. 



It is with great pleasure that I have witnessed the gradual development 

 of the entomological collections of the British Museum, now, I venture to 

 say, the finest in the world. Let us hope that their removal from Blooms- 

 bury to their magnificent new home at South Kensington will be safely 

 effected, and that their new domicile on the ground floor of that establish- 

 ment will be less disastrous than that which has attended the location of the 

 fine collection of insects in the New Museum of Geneva, where, from the 

 misplaced position of the entomological laboratory, mould to a terrible 

 extent has assailed the collections, the very valuable one of Mr. M ell y 

 having, however, escaped by being placed in an upper room. 



In conclusion, I cannot too strongly insist on the necessity of investi- 

 gating the correlation between the various structures of insects and their 

 corresponding habits ; believing as I do that every variation of structure 

 has resulted from a preconceived design, and that nothing has been left to 

 blind chance, or to the power of external forms in developing previously 

 non-existent structures into a permanent specialized condition. 



Exhibitions, <&c. 



Mr. J. W. Slater exhibited a large case containing numerous specimens 

 of Lepidoptera from Zululand. 



Prof. Westwood made some detailed remarks on some of the specimens, 

 especially on the Rhopalocera and Bombycidce, noticing various rare and 

 beautiful species of Acraa and a pair of the rare Bombyx Oubie, Guer., 

 figured in Lefebvre's 'Voyage en Abyssinie' (Ins. pi. xii. figs. 1, 2), but 

 hitherto otherwise unknown to him. 



Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited an object found in a nest of Formica nigra 

 in Ayrshire by Mr. P. Cameron. 



Prof. Westwood suggested that it was the pupa, or rather the indurated 

 skin, of some syrphideous insect. 



Baron Osten-Sacken, who was present as a visitor, said it was certainly 

 the pupa of one of the Syrphidce, probably of Aphritis aureopubescens, Latr.* 



* In Bull. Soc. Ent. France (6, pp. xcvii, cvi; Sept. 1882) it is mentioned that 

 M. V. Mayet, of Montpellier, frequently finds larva? and pupae of Microdon mutabilis, 

 L. (= Aphritis aureopubescens, Latr.) in nests of Lasius niger. — W. F. K, 



