162 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



fore wings and one of the hind wings, were elongated. The other 

 hind wing and the wings on the upper side were normal. Mr. 

 C. 0. Waterhouse sent for exhibition living males and immature 

 females of the mammoth scale-insect which infests the M'sasa tree in 

 Ehodesia : also a dead example of the fully-grown female scale. 

 They are what are known in collections under the generic name 

 Monophlahus . The female has been named Lophococcus maximus 

 by Mr. Lounsbury. — Mr. E. A. Butler exhibited one species of Coleo- 

 ptera, and five of Hemiptera, recently added to the British Fauna ; also 

 the unique example of Mymecocoris gracilis, Sahib., taken by him at 

 Fleet, Hants, in August, 1903. — Mr. E. J. Arrow exhibited examples 

 of a Cetoniid beetle, Dicronorrhina (subg. Neptunides) manoioensis 

 Moser, to show injuries of a remarkable character. In all the marks 

 were perfectly symmetrical and occupied exactly the same position. 

 — Dr. K. Jordan exhibited the polymorphic Papilio lysithous and P. 

 hectorides from Brazil, and the models which they imitate. The exhibit 

 illustrated a phenomenon observed in various groups of butterflies : 

 that a mimetic species is broken up into a number of very different- 

 looking individual varieties, which are all specifically the same, while 

 the imitated models are specifically distinct from one another. He 

 also exhibited both sexes of the peculiar Peruvian butterfly, Styx 

 infernalis, described by Staudinger as a Pierid, but certainly an 

 Erycinid in the structure of the antenna, thorax, legs, neuration, and 

 the egg. Dr. Jordan also showed, on behalf of the Hon. N. Charles 

 Rothschild, an Acrotyliis which Mr. Eothschild had observed m some 

 numbers in the desert on the Upper Nile. The colour of these small 

 locusts so closely agrees with that of the sand and the pebbles (also 

 exhibited) that, when settled, the insects disappear entirely from 

 view. — Mr. J. W. Tutt opened a discussion on the affinities of the 

 two Palaearctic species, Pleheius argiis, L. {agon, Schift'. ; argyrotoxiis, 

 Brgstr.) and P. argyrognomon, Brgstr. (argns auctorum). After 

 giving an account of the confusion in nomenclature, he proceeded to 

 explain the structural and superficial differences of the respective 

 imagines. It was also remarkable to note that both showed a parallel 

 range of varieties in the mountain, plain, and southern forms. Dr. 

 T. A. Chapman then gave a demonstration with the lantern, illus- 

 trated by many slides, of the structural differences of the two species 

 in the larval and imaginal stages, and criticized the opinion expressed 

 by Staudinger that argus and argyrognomon have not yet entirely 

 developed into separate species. The microscopic preparations 

 showed that the " claw " or spine over the front tibiae in argus w^as 

 not even represented in rudimentary form in argyrognomon. 



Wednesday, April 1th. — Dr. F. A. Dixey, M.A., M.D., President, 

 in the chair. — Mr. R. Shelford exhibited a number of examples of 

 mimetic Blattidae, the models being Coleoptera, principally Cocci- 

 nellidse, and Chrysomelidae. — Mr. H. M. Edelsten showed some ova 

 of Tapiinostola fulva {in situ) laid within the curled leaf of Carex 

 paludosa ; also a photograph of the anal segments of the female, 

 showing the ear-like appendages, from the ventral side. These, when 

 not in use, are carried flat, but when the female is going to lay, they 

 are folded together and thrust between the curled edges of a leaf to 

 force it a'Dart ; the fold makes a hollow in which the ova are 



