THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 85 



anything else; llie wings are as long as, but narrower than, 

 those of the common ''dagger." — J. Gerrard. 



Abstract of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 



March 7 and 21, 1870. 



English Locusts. — Prof. Westvvood exhibited a number 

 of locusts, which formerly belonged to the collections of 

 some of the principal entomologists in the early part of 

 the century, and which still bore the labels of those 

 entomologists " migratoria, Linn." These insects, how- 

 ever, were not the migratoria of Fischer, but were the 

 cinerascens of Fabricius and Fischer, of which Chrislii of 

 Curtis was only a synonym. The principal distinguishing 

 character was the form of the pronotum, which in one was 

 narrowed before the middle, and almost flat on the top, with 

 the dorsal carina more raised and prominent. Prof. Westwood 

 remarked that tradition and old specimens were, on a point 

 of this kind, of more importance than figures in antique 

 works, and he thought that Fischer had made a mistake, and 

 applied the name migratoria to the wrong insect. On the 

 evidence aff'orded by these old specimens, he suggested that 

 the true migratoria of Linne was not the locust with a flat or 

 but slightly carinate pronotum, constricted in front, but the 

 locust with an arched pronotum, with the crest or median 

 ridge higher and more produced in front. Mr. F. Smith said 

 that, in consequence of a doubt expressed by Prof. Westwood 

 at a previous Meeting, he had written to Prof. Stal, of 

 Stockholm, who informed him that the insect placed in the 

 Stockholm Museum as the migratoria of Linne is the form 

 described under that name by Fischer. Dr. Stal further said 

 that he had never had any doubt about the species, as 

 Fischer's migratoria is the only species of locust which to his 

 knowledge had ever been found in Sweden. Mr. Smith 

 remarked that Linne described migratoria in the Faima 

 Suecica ; Fischer was acquainted with both migratoria and 

 cinerascens, and figured their distinguishing characters, 

 migratoria having a flat prothorax, cinerascens an arched 

 one ; and now to apply the name migratoria to the form with 



