gg [March, 



(ibituar]). 



James Thomson, who died towards the end of last year, was an American by 

 birth, but passed the greater part of his long life in France, and especially in Paris. 

 He amassed large collections of the more striking Coleoptera, especially Longicornia, 

 BuprestidcB, CetoniadcB, and Lucanidce, in acquiring which he spared no expense. 

 His publications, which date from 1856, are very numerous, and of considerable 

 importance, largely in the " Annales " of the French Entomological Society, of which 

 he became a Member in 1854 ; also in the " Archives Entomologiques," which he 

 established in 1857, and which lasted two years, and in the " Arcana Naturse," pub- 

 lished in 1859. Subsequently, in 1867, he brought out a serial, under the name of 

 " Physis, recueil d'histoire naturelle," which also lasted two years ; this latter con- 

 tained an odd mixture of science and metaphysics, and may be classed amongst the 

 eccentricities of entomological literature. He was a Member of the Entomological 

 Society of London from 1856 to 1888. Latterly he published very little, having, 

 some years ago, sold his collections to M. E.ene Oberthiir. 



We need not remind some of our readers that Thomson married a sister of the 

 late Charles Stewart Parnell, and that it was ostensibly in order to allow him to 

 attend the funeral of a nephew (a son of Tiiomson) that the Ii'ish leader was 

 released from prison in April, 1882. 



BiEMiNGHAM ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY : December 20th, 1897. — Mr. Gt-. T. 

 Bethune-Bakee, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. E. J. Denham, of 31, High Eoad, Small Heath, was elected a member. 



Mr. E. C. Bradley showed Hadena glauca and Anaitis plagiata from Sutton, 

 and TSphestia Kuhniella from his oiBce. Mr. P. W. Abbott, a nice little series of 

 Cymatophora fluctuosa taken in Wyre Forest last June, rather pale in colouring ; 

 also a specimen of Sesia culiciforniis with a white band, also from Wyre; this 

 last was a rather black looking specimen, darker than usual, excepting the band, 

 which was quite white. Mr. C. J. Wainwright, a box of Aculeate Hymenoptera, 

 including four Odynerus Icevipes, $ , a rare insect, which, however, seems well 

 established in Wyre Forest; Andrena humilis, $, from Wyre Forest, and some 

 wide-banded vars. of Apis melUJica from Eisenach, Thuringia. Mr. A. H. Martineau 

 remarked that Mr. Saunders gives as a character of 0. Icevipes, yellow patches on 

 both the middle and hind pairs of legs, but on all the Midland specimens he has 

 seen they were on the middle pair only. Mr. Martineau, sticks containing the cells 

 from which he had bred several O. Icevipes from Malvern ; also sticks containing 

 cells of Pemphredon luguhris, Anthopliora fucata, Panz., and Osmia leucomelana. 

 Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, two drawers of Fierida, containing a fine series of Antho- 

 charis, including A. Pecki from Algeria, and other rare species, and the genera Zegris, 

 Leucophasia, &c. 



January 17ih, 1898. — The President in the Chair. 



Mr. R. C. Bradley showed Therioplec/es solstitialis, taken before 8 a.m., 



