SOCIETIES. 



131 



collectors. Last March I did not observe one specimen.— Dr. May ; 

 Hayling Islaud. 



EuPLEXiA LUCiPARA IN FEBRUARY. — On Feb. 25th, about 6 p.m., I 

 found a female of the above species at rest on a piano in our drawing-room. 

 I think this is probably a hybernated specimen, although the species does 

 not usually pass the winter in the perfect state. It is somewhat worn, but 

 was quite Uvely when captured. — Philtp J. Barraud Bushey ; Heath, 

 Herts, March 3rd, 1900 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — March 9th, 1900. — Mr. G. H. 

 Verrall, President, in the chair. Mr. H. Eowland-Brown, M.A., was 

 elected into the Council, and as joint- Secretary in the place of Mr. J., J. 

 Walker, R.N., who had resigned. Prof. Christopher Aurivillius, of 

 Stockholm, and Prof. Frederick Moritz Brauer, of Vienna, were 

 elected Honorary Fellows ; and W. D. Drury, of Eocquaine, West Hill 

 Park, Woking ; the Eev. W. Westropp Flemyng, of Coolfin, Portlaw, 

 Waterford ; and Prof. Percy Groom, M.A., F.L.S., of the Eoyal Indian 

 Engineering College, Coopers Hill, were elected ordinary Fellows of 

 the Society. Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited a series of varieties of 

 Spilosoma dorsalis from South Africa, .showing variation in some 

 degree parallel with that of S. lubricipeda in Great Britain. Mr. 

 G. W. Kirkaldy exhibited several Ehynchota of economic interest, 

 from the United States, Ceylon, and British Central Africa, among 

 them being the new JSgaleus bechuana, Kirk., from Africa, which 

 attacks coffee, and Parlatoria victrix, Ckll., from Phoenix, Arizona, 

 found on date-palms. The last-named Coccid was originally introduced 

 from Egypt, and all attempts at eradication had hitherto failed. He 

 also showed a series of thirteen colour-varieties of the oriental Scu- 

 tellerine Cantao ocellatus (Thunb.), and examples of Distantidea vedda 

 (a new genus and species of Lybantinffi) from Ceylon, in which the 

 rostrum was very long, extending as far as to the apex of the abdomen. 

 Papers were communicated, by Mr. W. L. Distant on " Undescribed 

 genera and species belonging to the Rhynchotal family Pentatomidge," 

 and by Mr. G. J. Arrow " On Pleurostict Lamellicorns from Grenada 

 and St. Vincent (West Indies)." Mr. C. J. Gahan read a paper on 

 " Stridulating organs in Coleoptera," in which he remarked that one 

 of the best accounts of them was to be found in ' The Descent of Man,' 

 but since that work was written several additional instances of their 

 occurrence had been made known, showing that these organs were less 

 uniform in structure and even more wonderfully diversified in position 

 than Darwin considered them to be ; while their discovery in the larvas 

 of certain forms would lead to some modification of the view that they 

 have originated in connection with sex and primarily serve the purpose 

 of attracting the sexes to one another. He gave a detailed account of 

 their presence on the head, prothorax, mesothorax, legs, abdomen, and 

 elytra, enumerating several genera of Tenebrionidae, Endomychid®, 

 Hispidse, &c., in which they had not previously been known to occur, 

 and describing those of certain Hispid^ as being the most complex in 



