6080 



Northern Entomological Society. 



" Mr. Newman applies tlie name Slegoptera to the order containing the Tri- 

 choptera: I think it is a decided improvement, and shall adopt it. I ouijht also to 

 have used the termination ina Vk'here a tribe or group of families was intended, as 

 Slaphylinina, Phryganeina. 



" For the application of the name Triclioplera Mr. Douglas is ready enough to 

 find fault with me, but he is apparently blind to a defect of the very same kind in his 

 friend: in the order Hemiptera Mr. Newman includes the Cicadina, Cuccina and 

 Aphidina, which are no more hemipterous than the Panorpina are trichoplerous. 



" Mr. Douglas says that I mix the Amorpha and Necromorpha. I suppose he 

 means this: that in my plan of arrangemeiit the first and second orders have the pupa 

 necromorphous, the third and fourth amorphous, and the fifth, the Stegoptera, necro- 

 morphous. If Mr. Douglas will examine Newman's arrangement of the Diptera, 

 identical with Walker's, T think he will there see that the word 'mix' may be used 

 with more propriety. In that arrangement the single tribe Stratiomina, of compara- 

 tively small extent, having the pupa obtected, is placed between tribes of considerable 

 extent, having the pupa extricated. 



" But, with regard to the order Stegoptera: I place it close to the Lepidoptera ; 

 Mr. Newman places it close to the Coleoptera (with which I see very little affinity), 

 and removes it as far from the Lepidoptera as his system will admit of. Now, let us 

 see what he says in reference to a great portion of this order. In the Preface to the 

 ' Zoologist' for 1857 Mr. Newman asks this question, ' Why is not the entire tribe of 

 Phryganeina lepidopterous ? The cased larva is no objection ; the form of pupa is no 

 objection.'''' I need not quote any more ; surely there can be no objection to placing 

 the Stegoptera close to the Lepidoptera. Yet it is on this ground, if I have under- 

 stood him rightly, — and I do not see how I could have misunderstood him, — that 

 Mr. Douglas makes the positive and authoritative assertion that my plan of arrange- ' 

 ment is a ' manifest retrogression.' 



" But Mr. Douglas is anxious that Mr. Newman should have the credit of what- 

 ever merit may be due to the original propounder of the system : I am glad to have 

 the opportunity of saying that in this I most cheerfully and heartily coucur." 



An animated discussion followed the reading of the President's paper. 



Attention was called to Mr. Reading's notes on the modes of capturing Carabus 

 intricatus, &c., in the ' Zoologist,' so different to the usual announcements of captures, 

 which were generally mere trumpets sounded by the writers, and gave no practical 

 information to other naturalists. 



The attention of the Meeting was also called to the ' Insect Hunters,' by Newman, 

 a Member observing that it was the first book from any author who seemed to under- 

 stand the art of teaching Natural History pleasantly, particidar stress being laid upon 

 the advisability of all young naturalists acting up to the text of the valedictory 

 chapter. 



A vote of thanks being passed to all who had contributed to the pleasure of 

 the evening, especially to the lady of Captain Cox, the Meeting separated.— C. S. G. 



