Entomological Society. 



6153 



* Annals of Natural History' for 1840: his idea of its being a parasite, is, however, 

 certainly disproved by this discovery of Mr. Elliot." 



Mr. Westwood added that Mr. Shuckard, in his * Monograph on the Dorylides,' 

 referred to by Mr. Thwaites, had sujrgested that Typhlopone was composed of females 

 of Labidus, and had consequently removed the former from the family of the ants, 

 considering the Dorylides as an osculant family between the Mutillidae and Formicidae, 

 whereas he (Mr. Westwood), in the Arcana Ent. i. 73, had shown Typhlopone to 

 belong to the family of the ants, and had considered the Dorylides as a section of the 

 Formicidoe, doubting, at the same time, the supposed sexual connexion between 

 Typhlopone and Labidus. 



Mr. Smith observed that the communication was certainly very interesting: Dr. 

 Savage had, however, to his own satisfaction, settled the relationship of DorUus some 

 years a<io. In the ' Proceedings of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ' for 1850, a com- 

 munication from Dr. Savage states, that he found in Africa a number of specimens 

 of Dorylus in company with a new species of Anomraa, " A. rubella, Sav.' ; the latter 

 he considei-s to be the workers of Dorylus, yet, notwithstanding this opinion and 

 the details given, Mr. Smith expressed his doubts of there being any specific con- 

 nexion between these insects ; they were not even found in a nest, but upon the 

 ground, the Dorylus being mixed with a procession of Anomma. Although great dis- 

 parity in the size of the sexes of some species of ants was well known, no instance of 

 the male so greatly exceeding the worker had come under his notice, and in India 

 Dorylus was common, whilst Anomma has not yet been found. Mr. Smith was far 

 more inclined to adopt the opinion of Dorylus being the male of Typhlopone, but he 

 did not consider the communication decisive upon that point ; the Dorylus it appeared 

 had been discovered in the same nest, or in company with workers of Typhlopone, but 

 the female had not been discovered, and Dorylus might yet prove to be a parasite. 

 Mr. Shuckard had suggested the probability of Labidus, the New World representa- 

 tive of Dorylus, buing the male of Typhlopone ; and as the latter genus, or one very 

 closely resembling it, had been received from Brazil from Mr. Bates, the communica- 

 tion, should the connexion therein stated prove eventually to be correct, certainly con- 

 firmed Mr. Shuckard's views. 



Mr. Staiuton read the following paper: — 



On the persistence of Species. 



"Some strangely heretical notions were broached at the last Meeting, — at least 

 they were such notions as must appear heretical to all who have closely studied 

 species. 



" It was suggested that those individuals of a genus which all who have most care- 

 fully investigated the subject agree in considering species, were not in reality species, 

 but merely varieties, or rather races caused by some modification of habit. The 

 statement that different species will, in the larva state, feed on different plants, was 

 used in an inverted manner to imply that eggs of one species laid on four or five dif- 

 ferent plants will produce apparently as many different species. 



" I do not wish in the slightest degree to overstate the new theory, but I cannot 

 see that it differs in degree from what I have just mentioned. Species somewhat 

 similar feeding on closely allied plants were suggested as probable variations caused 

 by the difference of food; but if a slight difference of food causes a slight apparent 

 XVI. 2 Q 



