SOCIETIES. 215 



The May number of the Ent. News, also contains a considerable, 

 number of descriptions of new species in various orders. There is an 

 interesting and useful article by Hy. Skinner on " The Genus Pamas- 

 siiis in America," with a plate of figures of imagines, and a page of 

 bibliographical notes. The writer recognises four species of the genus 

 P. clodius, P. umintheus, P. eversmcnmi, and P. nomion, and discusses 

 the various forms which have been named. Mallock records a her- 

 maphrodite of Andrena cressoni. The Orthopterous genus Panchlorais 

 discussed by Hebard. T. D. A. Cockerell writes on parasitic bees. 

 There is a comprehensive article on the stem and root-boring species of 

 the Lepidopterous genus Papoipenia, which is closely allied to our 

 Noctuid genus Gortyna. In referring again. to the completion of the 

 great work, the Biolociia Centrali Americana, excellent portraits of 

 the two authors, Dr. F. Ducane Godman and Mr. Osbert Salvin, are 

 given. 



In the Naturalist for August we read of a caterpillar plague in 

 South-West Yorkshire and elsewhere. Mr. B. Morley, of the York- 

 shire Naturalist's Union, reports that there were " incredible num- 

 bers " of the larvae of Charaeas graudnis in ail the uplands of the 

 former district, it being "quite impossible to walk about without 

 killing some at every step." Plusia moneta is again recorded from 

 Yorkshire. 



In the Fntoiiwlof/ist for August Mr. R. South has commenced a 

 List of British Noctiridae, as arranged in the general collection at the 

 Natural History Museum, with references to the current British works 

 on the family. Whether we agree or not with the Hampsonian 

 Nomenclature, this will be a most useful compilation for all workers 

 in this section of the British fauna. 



In the Knt. Mo. Mag. for .July is an article by W. H. T. Tams, 

 comparing the races of Etiplexia lucipara from the British Isles and 

 from North America, with illustrations of the respective imagines and 

 their genitalia. The writer wisely leaves the matter for further 

 investigation, with more material and under more advantageous cir- 

 cumstances. At the same time he points Qut that " there are quite a 

 number of species of Noctuidae in North America which are repre- 

 sented in Europe, either by the same form or by closely allied species, 

 and it would pay any keen naturalist to investigate these relationships 

 to the fullest extent, taking into account superficial characters, geni- 

 talia, and life-histories." In the same number. Dr. E. C. L. Perkins 

 continues his critical " Notes on the Collection of British Hymenoptera 

 formed by F. Smith." 



SOCIETIES. 



The South London Entomological and Natifral History Sooiett, 



June 28i/i.— Nest of Icaria sp. — ^Mr. H. Moore exhibited the nest 

 of a wasp, Icaria sp., from Demerara. 



Living C. dispar var. rutilus and ova of two species of Sawfly.-- 

 Dr. Chapman, a pair of living Chrysophanns dispar var. rutilns, natu- 

 ralised in Britain for three generations, and also specimens of the egg- 

 laying of the sawflies Cladiiis viminalis in the petioles of poplar, and 

 of Lophyrus pint, in a groove in needles of Pinns sylvestris. 



Sicilian Coleoptera. — Mr. Main, living beetles from Sicily. 



