Entomological Society. 



8479 



Exhibitions, fyc. 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Abraham Edmunds, of the Tything, 

 Worcester, correcting an error in the Report of the Meeting of the Society held on 

 the 5th of January last : of the varieties of Lepidoptera exhibited by Mr. Stainton on 

 that occasion, on behalf of the Rev. E. Horton, part only were the property of 

 Mr. Bibbs; the Vanessa Atalanta, Arge Galathea, Arctia Caja and Eriogaster lanestris, 

 belonged to and were captured by Mr. Edmunds. 



Mr. Bond exhibited a specimen of Lycsena Dorylas, believed to have been captured 

 in the West of England in 1862 ; two specimens had been sent to Mr. Bond as varieties 

 of L. Adonis, having been taken, in ignorance of their specific distinctness, out of a 

 large number of insects belonging to Mr. W. Farren, of Cambridge. 



Mr. Waterhouse exhibited certain British species of the genus Mycetoporus, with 

 the view of correcting an error into which he had fallen, that of confounding the M. 

 longulus with M. lepidus. Mr. Waterhouse observed, " When I formerly examined the 

 British Mycetopori,in order to determine and catalogue the species, T possessed only old 

 specimens, not in a favourable condition for displaying their characters; but I have 

 now before me not only a series of fresh and well-preserved British specimens of both 

 species, but likewise continental specimens forwarded to the British Museum by 

 Dr. Kraatz. The M. longulus of Mannerheim, Erichson, Kraatz, &c, appears to be 

 not uncommon in gravel and sand pits in the neighbourhood of London. In some 

 respects it is intermediate in its characters between the M. splendeus and the 

 M. lepidus. In size and form, for example, it is intermediate. Its colouring resembles 

 that of M. splendens, being black (if we except the pale legs and basal joint of the 

 antennae), with bright red elytra, in which the region of the scutellum and the lateral 

 margins are dusky, but in other respects immaculate. It differs from this insect in 

 being rather narrower; in having the autennae longer and less stout, the four penulti- 

 mate joints being less strongly transverse; in having two punctures, placed obliquely, 

 on either side of the disk of the thorax ; and in having the abdomen more thickly 

 punctured. Most of my specimens of M. splendens have the abdomen entirely black 

 above, but in some the edges of the segments are rufo-piceous. My specimens of 

 M. longulus have the abdomen of a less pure black, being somewhat pitchy ; and the 

 edges of the segments, in all, are rufo-piceous. 



" This insect differs from M. lepidus in having the sides of the body less parallel, 

 the thorax being broader behind, and followed by broader elytra, and a more attenuated 

 abdomen ; the antenna? are rather longer, as are likewise the legs. 



" In M. lepidus the colouring of the body is very variable, ranging from nearly 

 uniform rufous to pitchy black ; often it is pitchy, with the elytra more or less rufous 

 at the base. Here the general colour of the thorax and elytra is generally the same, 

 or very nearly so. In a long series of M. lepidus now before me, I do not find any 

 specimens having uniformly bright-red elytra, accompanied by a black thorax. It has 

 two punctures on each side of the disk of the thorax, and sometimes three or four. On 

 the apical half of each elytron may be seen usually two punctures in a faint stria 

 situated between the sutural stria and the submesial one. In M. longulus these 

 supplemental punctures on the elytra are often wanting. 



" The Ischnopoda melanura of Stephens, which is given in my Catalogue as 

 synonymous with Mycetoporus lepidus, should be transferred to the M. longulus, 

 Manner h" 



