SOCIETIES. 355 



Mr. A. M. Lea sent for exhibition two interesting examples of 

 Lissotes beetles, which he had presented to the British Museum 

 (Natural History) Teratological Collection : L. curvicornis, Ber. var. 3, 

 with an additional leg jutting out from the left front coxa ; and 

 L. imnctatiis, Lea, an hermaphrodite having the left side male and the 

 right female. — Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe exhibited an example of 

 Helcon ruspator, L., a Braconid new to Britain, taken at Cannock 

 Chase on the 16th July last, in a cell of Strangalia 4-fasciata in a 

 fallen birch tree, and an example of the host captured at the same 

 time. He pointed out that this very fine addition to the British 



List is recorded as parasitic on the same beetle on the Continent. 



Mr. P. J. Barraud showed examples of two new forms of Melitcea 

 aurinia from Italy : — («) var. aurunca, Turati, from the Aurunci Moun- 

 tains, southern central Italy, first discovered in May, 1909, by Sig. 

 Querci, of Formia, the most striking feature of which is the wide 

 black median band on the upper side, contrasting with a rather pale 



ground colour, and (b) var. comacina, Turati, from above Como. 



Mr. A. E. Gibbs exhibited a case of butterflies containing a represen- 

 tative collection of the twenty-eight species met with by him at 

 Blidah and Hammam E'Irha, &c., during an entomological excursion 

 to Algeria made at the end of May and the beginning of June this 

 year. The weather was extremely bad throughout, being cold, wet, 

 and windy ; the most interesting species taken in the first-mentioned 

 locality were Euchloe eupheno and Go&nonympha arcanioides ; in the 

 latter. Dry as pandora and Melitcea cetheria var. algerica. — Mr. W. J. 

 Kaye exhibited many remarkable wasp-like and beetle-like SyntomidEe, 

 with their models, the wasps and beetles from British Guiana, South- 

 east Brazil, and Venezuela. Attention was particularly drawn to the 

 wonderfully close habits of the one to the other, so much so that it 

 was impossible in some instances to distinguish the moth from the 

 model until it settled. This was especially the case with Pseudo- 

 sphex noverca and the wasp Zethus binodis which Mr. Kaye had 

 caught on Ageratum flowers at Fernandes Pinheiro, in Parana. A 

 new species of Pseiidospliex was taken with the Vespid Meganthopus 

 cassununga. These two insects so closely resembled one another 

 that, even at a distance of eighteen inches or less, it was not an easy 

 matter to distinguish them. From Caracas, Venezuela, were shown 

 the Syntomid Macrocneme lades, with a Pompilid wasp of an unde- 

 scribed species. The two insects had been caught flying together. 

 In the discussion which followed, the President said that cases of 

 close similarity with insects of different orders were always welcome, 

 and that in this instance Mr. Kaye had shown that the resemblance 

 extended not only to outside appearances, but to the habits of the 

 several mimics and their models. Arguments based upon cabinet speci- 

 mens alone as to the supposed resemblance of originals in the field 

 were to be accepted with caution. Mr. J. W. Tutt, Mr. C. J. Gahan, 

 Mr. G. C. Champion, the Rev. F. D. Morice, Mr. A. Sich, andDr. Chap- 

 man also joined in the discussion. — Mr. E. D. Nevinson showed bred 

 series of Xanthia ocellaris developing three distinct aberrant forms, 

 and examples of X.fulvago and X. gilvago for comparison, the exhibit 

 demonstrating the apparent transition from one species to the other 



