Entomological Society. 435 



the larva of Meloe, in the Transactions of the Society, in which it 

 had been stated that the specimens which he had found at large and 

 dissected were identical with some reared by the Rev. L. Jenyns 

 from the hn-va of the Meloe, whereas the latter had been reared from 

 the eggs of that insect. This correction was especially required, 

 because in the volume upon insects in the Cabinet Cyclopcedia it had 

 been suggested by Mr. Shuckard that the two insects were not iden- 

 tical. 



A memoir was read by Mr. Westwood on the nomenclature of the 

 genus Chlorion of Latreille (Ampulex, Jurine). From a re\iew of 

 Latreille's various works it appears, that although at the first he gave 

 the Sphex lobata, Fabr. as the type of the genus, yet its characters 

 were not derived from that insect, but agree with the Sphex com- 

 pressa, Fabr. Fabricius, however, adopted and characterized the 

 genus Chlorion from the former of these two species, but included in 

 it also Sphex compressa. Jurine, however, finding the latter species 

 not to agree generically with the former, proposed the name of Am- 

 pulex for the Sphex compressa, and figured an European species as an 

 example, which however does not precisely agree with S. compressa. 

 Under these circumstances the author considers that the name of 

 Chlorion ought to be applied to the genus typified by Sphex com- 

 pressa, that the Chlorion of Fabricius requires another name, and 

 that the name Ampulex is strictly synonymous with Chlorion, the 

 same species being the true type of both generic names. In allusion 

 to the employment of synonymical names of genera, Mr. Yarrell 

 stated that a calculation had been made by Messrs. Agassiz and De- 

 Candolle, by which it appeared that no less than 300 generic names 

 of plants and 800 names of zoological genera required changing, 

 having been previously used in other branches, and it was insisted 

 upon by several members that the inconvenience wliich would neces- 

 sarily result from the change in such a number of names would far 

 overbalance the occasional slight inconveniences at present felt in 

 cases of such " double emploies," as the French term them. It was 

 further suggested by Mr. Waterhouse, that as Latreille had erred 

 in the first instance in giving as the type of Chlorion an insect which 

 did not accord with the generic characters which he had detailed, 

 we ought to adopt the nomenclature of Fabricius, who had given the 

 real characters of the insect which Latreille had mentioned as its 

 typical species. 



Anniversary meeting, Januar}^ 25th, 1841. — The Rev. F. W. Hope 

 in the Chair. 



At this Meeting the ordinary business of the annual meeting took 

 place. W. Sells, G. R. Waterhouse, S. Stevens, and W. Bennett, 

 Esqrs., were elected into the Council in the room of E. Charlesworth, 

 W. E. Shuckard, J. F. Stephens, and F. Walker, Ksqrs., and W. 

 W. Saunders, Esq., F,C.S., was elected President, W. Yarrell, Esq., 

 Treasurer, and J. O. Westwood, Secretary for the ensuing year. 



In the address delivered by the Rev. F. W. Hope, after favourably 

 commenting upon the character of the Society's Transactions, he 



2 F 2 



