dorsal at the tip on the upper surface ; tlie beak and antennae are also more 

 like Hylastes ; in fact, the genus does not differ greatly from Sclents, Lee, 

 except by the front and hind tibiae not being toothed. Nyxetes indicates a 

 tribe belonging to the Anthonomine type. Pactola and Stephanorhi/nchns 

 are entirely anomalous ; they seem to have the same relation to the Erirhine 

 and Anthonomine types that Tachygonus bears to the Cryptorhynchs and 

 Ceuthorhynchs. Xenocnema seems to be a new group of the tribe Hylurgini, 

 allied to Hylastes, but making a still nearer approach to the Cossonide 

 Stenoscelis. Anthribus inflatus and atoinus belong to a tribe allied to 

 (perhaps not different from) Notioxeni.' " 



Mr. Pascoe said that some of the genera mentioned were his own, or 

 had been treated by him, which Dr. Leconte had apparently overlooked. 

 Rhadinosomus, as a phanerognathous genus, he had been compelled, much 

 as he disliked interfering with a classification generally adopted, to remove 

 to a group apart, and allied, as he thought, to Rhliiaria (through such 

 genera as Eiithyphasis, Acalonoma and Ethemaia). Psepholax, too, could 

 be traced through certain forms (as Empleurus, Oreda, and others, to 

 Strongylopterus), connecting it with the normal CurculionidcB. Very little, 

 he thought, could be done satisfactorily without reference to large collections. 

 Classification, to be natural, should depend more on a comparison of forms 

 than on merely technical characters, which, when derived from a limited 

 series, were often misleading. The Rhynchophora of the United States 

 were of a remarkably common-place character, and very poor apparently in 

 individuals. 



Mr. Pascoe adds the following note : — " It should be mentioned that 

 Dr. Leconte divides the Rhynchophora into fourteen families, viz., Rhino- 

 maceridcB, Rhynchitida, AttelabidcB, Amycterida, BrachyceridcE, Byrsopidee, 

 OtiorhynchidcB, Curculionidm, Brenthida, Calandrida, AntliribidcB, Scolytida, 

 ApionidcB, and Belida ; all of equal taxonomic value, so that the present 

 position of Psepholax among the Scolylida is not so great a change as 

 it seems to those accustomed to the less sensational classification of 

 Lacordaire." 



Papers ready dc. 



Mr. J. W. Slater communicated a paper, " On the Food of Gaily- 

 coloured Caterpillars," in which he attempted t(» show that brightly-coloured 

 larvse generally fed on plants which were poisonous. 



Mr. M'Lachlan stated that the bright coloration of larvae was no pro- 

 tection from the attacks of ichneumons. He also remarked that the larva 

 of Diloba ceruleocephala was found feeding sometimes on sloe and sometimes 

 on laurel, and raised the question whether specimens found on the latter 

 plant would be poisonous, and those on ihe former innocuous. 



