8798 



Entomological Society. 



Papers read. 



Mr. Walker communicated a paper entitled " Characters of undescribed Lepi- 

 doptera :" the species described belonged to the three Heterocerous families of the 

 Castniidae, Agaristidae and Zygaenidae, and were most of them in the collection of the 

 British Museum. 



Prof. Westwood read some " Descriptions of new Species of Longicorn Beetles :" 

 some of the species described belonged to Mr. Semper, of Altona, and were principally 

 from the Manillas ; the other descriptions were drawn up from specimens in the 

 Oxford Museum. 



The Secretary read the Introductory Remarks to Major Parry's " Catalogue of 

 Lucanoid Coleoptera ; with Descriptions and Figures of new and interesting 

 Species.'' 



Arising out of some remarks by Major Parry on the extraordinary mandibular de- 

 velopment of the Lucanidae, and a suggestion that ihe intermediate form of male, more 

 nearly resembling the female, so constantly found in this group of insects, might pos- 

 sibly be neuters, an interesting conversation took place. Mr. Bates inquired whether 

 the generative organs of these so-called small or intermediate males had ever been 

 properly examined, and referred to Mr. Pascoe's explanation of similar phenomena 

 among the Longicorns, by what was termed " dimorphism.'^ Prof. Westwood said 

 that the suggestion that these were neuter forms was not new, but had been made by 

 Kirby and Spence in their ' Introduction to Entomology ;' he himself had never exa- 

 mined the organs of generation of these particular forms, but intermediate male forms 

 seemed to occur in almost all the cornnted beetles, and also in those with long 

 antennae. Mr. Pascoe said that his notion had been that the second form was pro- 

 bably the produce of a second brood, born or reared under different circumstances 

 from the original brood. Mr. Bates replied that, in the Copridae, the two forms cer- 

 tainly occurred in the same brood ; he had once thought that the variation of the 

 mandibles and antennas was owing to the absence of any precise function which those 

 organs had to fulfil, by reason of which absence there was nothing to limit or give the 

 character of fixedness to the amount of variation. Mr. Janson thought it was settled 

 that the function of the mandibles of the Lucanidae was to break or bruise the bark of 

 trees, with a view to the sustenance of the insect. Mr. Jekel replied that the females, 

 without the development of mandibles, had to do that as much as the males with the 

 large development. The President referred to the case of certain bees which were un- 

 mistakeably males, and possessed appendages in the form of horns, as e.g. the male of 

 Osmia cornuta. Mr. Bates inquired whether the males of the Lucani (L. Cervus, for 

 instance) fought with one another, and used their mandibles as weapons of offence, 

 like deer, which amongst the Mammalia might be considered to correspond with the 

 horned beetles amongst insects. Prof. Westwood said that males of Trichiosoma 

 had been found fighting together, with their mandibles locked. Mr. Bates con- 

 cluded that, fundamentally, horns were excrescences of the male organization, and 

 that it was an afterthought of Nature to make them subserve any particular function. 

 — /. W. D. 



