256 [November, 



legs, apex of the upper-side of first segment of abdomen and base of the second, 

 forming an oblong spot, ochraceous. (J — much darker insect ; antennse and pectus 

 black. Antennee of male with twenty-one joints ; female, nineteen. Length, 3 mm. ; 

 expansion of wings, 6 mm. 



A parasite on SipTionophora ahsintliii, Linne (Koch, fig. 272). 



Stonehouse, Devon : 



October, 1894. 



[The above descriptions also appear in the Presidential Address to the Plymouth 

 Institution and Devon and Cornwall Nat. Hist. Soc, delivered by Mr. Bignell on 

 October 12th, 1893, and published in its Transactions for 1893-4. — Eds.]. 



DR. HANSEN ON HEMIMEEUS. 

 BY D. SHARP, M.A., P.R.S., &c. 



A paper on Hemimerus has recently appeared in Ent. Tidskr., 

 1894, p. 65, &c., from the pen of Dr. H. J. Hansen, of Copenhagen. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. E. Bergroth, I am able to give an account 

 of this interesting memoir. The insect has been a puzzle to entomo- 

 logists on account of its being said to possess two palpigerous labia ; 

 it has, indeed, been proposed to exclude it altogether from the Insecta 

 on that ground. Until lately the insect has been known only by the 

 few specimens in our national collection, described by Walker as 

 Semimerus talpoides. Specimens of the genus have been recently 

 received by the Stockholm Museum, found by the Naturalist Sjostedt 

 in G-ambia. The insect proves, as its appearance suggested, to be a 

 parasite on mammals ; it was found on a very large rat, Gricetomys 

 gamhianus. It occurred on only two individuals of the rat, but there 

 were in each case plenty of specimens ; they were very active, running 

 about, and even leaping. The food is unknown ; Hansen suggests 

 that it may be small parasites, but this is rather improbable ; it would 

 require an enormous stock of small parasites to keep a dozen or more 

 Hemimerus — a fairly large insect — supplied with pabulum. The idea 

 that the insect has two palpigerous lower lips is so completely 

 erroneous that one can only wonder how it could have arisen. The 

 mouth has the parts ordinarily found in a mandibulate insect, and 

 nothing more. 



Dr. Hansen had at his disposal only three dead specimens pre- 

 served in spirit ; on cleaning one of them he was surprised to find 

 that it had some foreign bodies inside it; these, on further examination, 

 proved to be young Semimeri ; six young were found, arranged, the 

 larger one near the hind part of the body, the smaller near the 



