138 The entomologist. 



also took part in the discussion which ensued. Mr. McLachlan 

 exhibited a single instance of monstrosity in a dragon-fly. The insect 

 was a male of Hetarina occisa, Hag., from Venezuela. On the left side 

 were three wings, two mesothoracic and the other metathoracic ; on 

 the right side only one wing, the metathoracic. The supplementary 

 wing on the left side was inserted almost immediately beneath the 

 ordinary wing; it was normal in form and neuration, but the red pig- 

 ment at the base (fully developed in all the other wings) was not evident, 

 the wing in this respect being similar to those of highly immature 

 examples of the same species. Mr. E. E. Green exhibited a larva of 

 an homopterous insect — one of the Cicadinse — from Ceylon, having 

 what appeared to be a head at its caudal extremity. He pointed out 

 that the larva had caudal appendages which might be mistaken for 

 hairy antennae, and pigment spots resembling eyes on the antepenul- 

 timate segment of the body. The insect walked either backwards or 

 forwards, and when first seen looked like a beetle of some kind, the 

 caudal extremity representing the head. Mons. Louis Periuguey con- 

 tributed a paper entitled *' Descriptions of New Species of South African 

 Coleoptera, chiefly from Zambesia." Dr. Sharp read a paper, by Prof. 

 Williston, entitled " On the Diptera of St. Vincent, West Indies." 

 Part. I. 



March 18^/*.— The President in the chair. Mr. T. A. Gerald 

 Strickland, of Oakleigh, near Ascot, Berkshire, was elected a Fellow 

 of the Society. Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited a series of drawings of 

 varieties of British Lepidoptera in the collection of Mr. S. J. Capper, 

 of Huyton Park, Liverpool. The drawings, which were beautifully 

 executed, were by Mr. S. L. Mosley, of Huddersfield, and comprised 

 389 figures, representing 139 species, of which 33 were butterflies and 

 50 moths. Herr Jacoby enquired whether any record had been kept 

 of the localities in which these varieties had been caught, or of the 

 conditions under which they had been bred. Mr. Barrett, in reply, 

 stated that none of the varieties exhibited had been obtained by 

 breeling under artificial conditions for the purposes of experiment, 

 but they were all natural varieties due to the influence of climate or soil, 

 or to the latitude of the localities where they were caught or bred. 

 Mr. Porritt added that Mr. Capper had made a special collection of 

 the Yorkshire forms of Arctia lubricipeda. Mr. J. J. Walker, E.N., 

 exhibited a specimen of Procas armillatus, taken on Durland Hill, near 

 Chatham, during the present month. Herr Jacoby exhibited a speci- 

 men of Lox'prosojms ceramboides, Guer., from Brazil. Mr. E. E. Green 

 exhibited the eggs of some species of Locustidfe extracted from the 

 stem of a young cinchona tree at Punduloya, Ceylon. He said the 

 species of the parent insect was undetermined ; it w^as possibly either 

 a Cynatomera or a Cyrtoj^hythes, both of which possess large sabre - 

 shaped ovipositors. A slit, half an inch deep and more than two inches 

 long, had been cut into the hard wood, in which the eggs had been 

 symmetrically deposited, edge to edge, with the coloured part inwards. 

 The greater part of each egg was of fine texture, and coloured green ; 

 but at the extremity from which the young insect would make its exit 

 the egg shell was soft, pliant, and beautifully reticulated. The row of 

 flattened green eggs lying side by side resemble an acacia leaf, but as 

 they are concealed within the stem the resemblance was apparently 



