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brought forward, and it was eventually determined that they should be 
held during the coming summer, to commence in April. It was also 
determined that the April meeting of the Section should be held in the 
Institution (instead of an excursion as last year), and that the Sectional 
excursions should commence in May. 
Mr. A. E. HuDD exhibited a pair of Acidalia Mancuniata, a new 
British species of moth (captured by Dr. Knaggs), and read a few notes 
upon its habits, and the differences between it and A. Subsericeata, a 
closely alHed species occurring in the Bristol District, a pair of which 
insect was also exhibited. Mr. Hudd also exhibited Scopula Alpinalis, and 
Pterophorus Spilodactylus, a rare species occurring in the Isle of Wight. 
The Chairman exhibited three species of Coleoptera, belonging to 
the family of the Paussidse, a family remarkable for the singular form of 
the antennae. The species were C. Piceus, taken by Mr. Barton in Aus- 
tralia (an insect which, Mr. Barton observed, was not only singular from the 
very pecuhar form of the head, but from the fact that it crepitated, when 
alarmed, like the common Bombardier beetle, Brachinus Crepitans,) 
Paussus Latrillei, and Paussus Cuculiatus, two species which had been sent 
him by a friend from South Africa. 
The Secretary then read a paper upon the Pterophorina occurring 
in the Bristol District. The Pterophorina were a group of moths easily 
characterised, the most essential and prominent characters being that the 
fore-wings were more or less deeply cleft in two, the cleft varying in different 
species from one fourth to one half or more of the entire length of the 
wing ; the hind wings were split, nearly their entire length, into three 
distinct parts, the divisions of the wings being surrounded by a thick 
fringe of long hair, giving them a peculiar feathery appearance, and earn- 
ing for the genus the popular name of Plume moths. There was probably 
a larger number of this pretty and interesting group occurring in the 
Bristol District than in any other of equal area in the Kingdom, as out of 
29 British species, the author had captured 17 in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of Bristol, and he thought that probably se\eral others would be 
found here when the district was more thoroughly searched. Among the 
species not yet discovered near Bristol, the two following were mentioned 
as not unlikely to be discovered: — Pterophorus Phseodactylus, an insect 
occurring abundantly near Gloucester, the larva to be found feeding upon 
Ononis Arvensis in May, and the Imago in July ; Pterophorus Loewii, a re- 
cently discovered and obscure species, in the perfect state scarcely to be distin- 
guished from Pt. Bipunctidactylus, a species common round Bristol. The 
larva of Pt. Loewii fed upon the seeds of Erythroeti Centaurea, a common 
plant in the vicinity of Leigh and Durdham Down. Tlie paper was con- 
* eluded by the author entering into particulars as to the habits and food- 
plants of the larva, and the localities of all the species that had been 
