SOCIETIES. 



1G7 



February last on the banks of running streams at Porlock, Somerset. 

 The insect was an interesting and unexpected addition to the British 

 list, and the second recent novelty from the west country, the other 

 being Ochthebius lejoHsi, Muls. and Rey, found at Ilfracombe in June 

 last by Mr. Bennett. It would seem to indicate that further additions 

 to our list of Coleoptera might be expected from the country south of 

 the Bristol Channel. He added that Mr. Waterhouse had informed 

 him that he had seen specimens of the Quedius from Wales and 

 Scotland. Mr. Champion also exhibited a small collection of Coleo- 

 ptera made by Mr. 0. V. Aplin in Southern Tunis during various 

 expeditions inland from Gabes. The collection included some interest- 

 ing Tenebrionidae of the genera Pimelia and Adesmia. Mr. Aplin 

 noticed specimens of these insects impaled by shrikes. Dr. Sharp, 

 Mr. R. Trimen, and Mr. McLachlan made some remarks on the sub- 

 ject of the impalement of insects by birds. Mr. Goss exhibited, for 

 Mr. Cameron, an apterous male of Mutilla contracta taken by Mr. 

 Rothney in Barrackpore, India. The specimen was stated to be the 

 first recorded instance in this species of a wingless male, and was also 

 abnormal in having the thorax incised laterally. Dr. Sharp called 

 attention to the fact that at a recent meeting of the Society (March 20th, 

 1895, see Proc, 1895, p. x) a specimen of a supposed dimorphic form of 

 one of the species of Dytiscus was examined, and Prof. Stewart enquired 

 whether any anatomical examination had been made of the sexual 

 organs. He said that in the 'Comptes Rendus Soc. Bordeaux,' 1894, 

 there was an account of the examination of the sexual organs of the 

 supposed second form of D. marginalis by Mons. Peytoureau, who came 

 to the conclusion that it was really a distinct species, which he called 

 D. herherti. Prof. Poulton exhibited examples of the type labels now in 

 use in the Hope Collection at Oxford, and illustrated their employment 

 by projecting on the screen, by the lantern, a photograph of the 

 Westwood types of African Eusemice described in Oates's ' Matabele 

 Land' (Lond., 1881). He said that such labels, having been once set 

 up in type, could be reproduced in electrotype very cheaply and effici- 

 ently. Black ink was considered better than red on account of its 

 greater permanence. Mr. Verrall was of opinion that no species 

 should be described from a single specimen or type, but from many 

 specimens, and he wished every so-called ''type" could be destroyed 

 as soon as a species had been described from it. He knew of cases in 

 which a "species" had been described from a single female specimen 

 in bad condition. Mr. Blandford explained the system of labelling 

 types in the Brussels Museum. Dr. Sharp, Prof. Meldola, Mr. 

 McLachlan, and Prof. Poulton continued the discussion. Mr. Bland- 

 ford exhibited a series of lantern slides showing the uses to which 

 photography could be put in entomological illustration. The photo- 

 graphs shown included various SatiirniidcB, VanessidcB, species of 

 Mamestra, Tipula, Ophion, Carabiis, Lucanus, Sitones, &c., as well as 

 one or two examples of insect-injury, and a view in Windsor Park 

 showing oaks defoliated by Tortrix viridana. Mr. Blandford said that 

 the photographs were taken without any considerable practice in 

 photography; that good and well-set specimens were desirable for 

 reproduction ; the colour-values had to be arrived at by the careful use 

 of orthochromatic methods, and a large lens of good focal length 



