1880.]_ - 429 [Hagen. 
A portrait of the late Dr. Charles Pickering presented by 
Mrs. Pickering, was shown, and a vote of thanks was passed 
for the very acceptable gift. 
Section of Entomology. February 25, 1880. 
Mr. E. P. Austin in the chair. Six persons present. 
The following paper was read :— 
On THE PRoposcis or NemocnatTHa. By H. Hacen. 
The January number of ‘‘ Kosmos,” p. 302, has a paper by 
H. Mueller, a Coleopteron with a Lepidopterous proboscis. He 
states that the complicated proboscis of bees needed a longer space 
of time for development than the proboscis of the Lepidoptera, 
which he believes to be developed at once out of the Phryganide 
mouth-part, because otherwise their relation would not be apparent. 
He prefers to consider the short proboscis of so many Lepidoptera as 
aborted, why is not stated. He considers this explanation to be 
somewhat doubtful, but supported by the transformation of the max- 
illa of a beetle into a Lepidopterous proboscis, in a comparatively 
very short space of time. Why this should be a support for his 
opinion, or why the time should have been very short, is not stated. 
Nemognatha chrysomelina of Europe, has the maxilla elongated, 
but after all only Coleopterous maxillae. A species from Southern 
Brazil has the maxillae very much elongated, and forming both 
together a proboscis as in Lepidoptera. Here, he concludes, that in 
a comparatively short space of time, differentiation in the same genus 
has produced the same transformation by which the Lepidoptera 
were separated from the Phryganida. 
The fact that Nemognatha has the maxillae elongated, is nota 
new one, as Illiger, 1807 (Magazin, vi, 333), formed this genus for a 
similar North American species (NV. vittata Fab., Syst. Eleut. 1, p. 
24 = Zonitis piazata Web., Observ., p. 60, and Z. piazata Fab., Ob- 
serv., p. 104), because the maxillae are very long and filiform, which 
fact he indicated by the generic name, Nemognatha. 
