9818 Entomological Society. 



Mr. S. S. Saunders exhibited numerous specimens, preserved in spirit, illustrative 

 of the transformations of the Strepsipterous insect, Hylechthrus Rubi : amongst them 

 were the apod larva in a Hylasus nymph, another exposed by removal of the last seg- 

 ments of the Hyleeus, and one extracted entire ; a male nymph in the pupa-case, the 

 operculum apart; a male imago with its wings erect, the pupa-case and operculum 

 apart ; females on their first protrusion, and another extracted entire on the second 

 (Jay. Also a parasite on Polistes Gallica, with the larvae of each. 



Mr. J. J. Weir enquired the use of the anal appendages of the earwig; there was 

 no doubt that Staphylinidae used their appendages for the purpose of closing or 

 pressing in the wings after fli{,'ht, and he believed it was mentioned in Kirby and 

 Si)ence that earwigs occasionally used theirs in opening their wings; he had observed 

 the small earwig {Labia minor) perform in this manner; the wings were partially pro- 

 truded, and then pulled out by means of the appendages, and he had come to the con- 

 clusion that this was the natural function, or at all events one of the functions, of 

 those organs, and doubted whether the wings could be expanded without the use of 

 the appendages. 



Prof. VVestwood was inclined to think that the appendages were more ornamental 

 than useful, and that their use, if any, was rather for the purpose of defence. 

 - Mr. S. H. Scudder, Soc. Nat. Hist, of Boston, U. S. A. (who was present as a 

 visitor), exhibited two fossil specimens (one the reverse of the other) of a gigantic 

 Ephemera, which must have measured live inches in expanse of wings. This with 

 some other fossil insects had been found by Mr. Hartt in the Devonian series of North 

 America, in a ledge of rock which ran out to sea, so that they could be examined 

 only at low tide; and respecting them Mr. Scudder read tiie following note: — 



" On the Devonian Insects of New Uninswiik. — There are in all ten specimens in 

 Mr. Hartt's most interesting collection of the fossil remains of insect-wings from 

 Lancaster, eight of which are reverses of one another, thus reducing the number to si.x 

 individuals; of these, one, a mere fragment, belongs, I think, to the same species as 

 another of which ihe more in)purtant parts of the wing are preserved, so th;it we have 

 five species represented among these Devonian insects, and these remains are all, I 

 suspect, composed of portions of the anterior wing alone. The data being thus frag- 

 mentary, the conclusions cannot be quite so satisfactorily determined as we could 

 wish, but we can still discover enough to prove that they are of unwonted interest. 

 Besides the peculiar interest which attaches to them as the earliest known traces of 

 insect life on the globe, there is very much in themselves to attract and merit 

 our closest attention. One of them is a gigantic representative of the family of 

 Epbemerina among Neuroptera, some three or four limes the size of the largest 

 species now living, with which I am acquainted. Another borrows some striking 

 points of the peculiar wing-structure of the Neuropterous family Odonata, and com- 

 bines with them those of families remote from that, and even belonging to a distinct 

 section of the Neuropieia, exhibiiing to our view a synthetic type which combines in 

 one the Pseudo-neuropiera and the Neuroptera, and represents a family distinct from 

 any hitherto known. Other fossil insects, found in carboniferous concretions in 

 Illinois, and described in 'Silliman's Journal' (N. S. xxxvii. 34), which Prof Dana 

 has kindly allowed me to examine, also belong to hitherto unrecognized families, 

 exhibiting similar relations to these in-our-day-disconnected sections of Neuropterous 

 insects; and a third species of Mr. Hartl's is a member of still another fomily of 



