188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Helm, Windermere; cand Dr. Cuthbert F. Selous, M.D., M.R.C.S., 

 L.R.C.P., Agra, Barton-on-Sea, New Milton, Hants, were elected 

 Fellows of the Society. — Dr. Nicholson showed six specimens of 

 Choleva fuliginosa, Er., an addition to the list of British beetles, from 

 Alphington, Devon. This species closely resembles C. nigrita, Er., 

 with which it is mixed in several collections, and is probably widely 

 distributed in this country. Mr. Dollman has taken it at Harrow, 

 Mr. Donisthorpe at Hartlepool, Mr. Taylor in the Isle of Wight, and 

 it is also in the Bates collection. — Mr. L. W. Newman exhibited 

 some sticks (the off-shoots of birch-stumps) containing larvte of 

 ^geria culiciformis ; also sticks of Salix ccvpraa containing larvae of 

 TrochUium bembeciformis, one of these showing the cap formed over 

 the hole prepared for emergence. This species is not usually supposed 

 to form a cap. The lai'vae were not, as is generally thought, confined 

 to living wood, some of those exhibited being in dead twigs. Also a 

 living specimen of A. culiciformis, a species which the exhibitor 

 remarked was easily forced. — Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker showed a 

 specimen of Erebia ceto which had been swept from the herbage 

 without its head, which was probably held fast by a spider ; nine 

 hours after capture this insect had still been capable of fluttering 

 strongly. He also exhibited a specimen of Erebia var. adyte, with a 

 half-developed right hind wing ; a specimen of E. eriphyle with no 

 left hind wing, and a Melitaa varia with no right hind wing ; in the 

 two latter there was no trace of the wing having ever been developed. 

 — Mr. A. Bacot communicated a note confirming the Hon. N. C. 

 Rothschild's distinction between Ctenocephalus canis and C. felis, 

 both of which he had bred from ova. He gave measurements 

 showing the difference in size and shape between the eggs of the two 

 species, comparing them also with those of C. fasciatus and Pidex 

 irritans. He also read a paper entitled " On the Persistence of 

 Bacilli in the Gut of an Insect during Metamorphosis," commenting 

 on which Dr. Chapman observed that, in moulting (referring chiefly 

 to Lepidoptera), a provision for increase of size is not the only object 

 in view, but also the removal of various possible microbic enemies. 

 In " laying up " for a moult a larva almost invariably first empties 

 the alimentary canal ; at the actual moult, not only the skin but the 

 lining membranes of the tracheae and of much of the alimentary 

 canal are cast also. The threads drawn from the mouth and anus, 

 consisting of the linings of the immce, vice, often seem long enough 

 to represent the whole tube ; if this be so, then bacillary inhabitants 

 would be got rid of, and in any case must be so to a great extent. It 

 would be interesting to know what is the precise hiatus between the 

 oral and anal portions, and what provision there is for establishing 

 an aseptic condition of this portion of the tube. — Messrs. Ernest A. 

 Elliott and Claude Morley communicated " A first Supplementary 

 Paper on the Hymenopterous Parasites of Coleoptera." — The Secre- 

 tary read to the Society a letter of condolence received by Dr. Chap- 

 man from M. Charles Oberthiir, one of the Honorary Fellows, con- 

 taining an appreciation of the late Mr. J. W. Tutt. 



Wednesday, March 15th, Special Meeting. — Rev. George Wheeler, 

 Secretary, in the chair. — The letter summoning the Special Meeting 

 was read by the chairman, and, no other candidate having been pro- 



