( xxiv ) 
dition in other parts of that continent. Prof. Riley further 
stated that Prof. Forel had informed him that the other 
ants in the same tube with the Plagiodera (which were 
sent by the collector of the specimens, Mr. J. M. Hutch- 
inson) have nothing to do with it, being worker, soldier, 
and female of Fheidole punctulata, Mayr, a species of 
the Subfamily MyrmicirKB. No doubt the two very different 
ants were found under one and the same stone, and so 
treated by the collector as one species. 
Dr. Sharp exhibited a series of Coleoptera, to illustrate 
variation in size. This series consisted of individuals that 
had been kindly lent to him by M. Rene Oberthiir, by the 
Hon. Walter Rothschild, by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, by 
Herr Jacoby, and by Mr. Blandford. He considered this series, 
and the communications he has received from the specialists 
to whom he has made applications, justify him in saying 
that great variation in size of the individual or of some of its 
parts is very rare in Coleoptera, and is exhibited most 
conspicuously by those species in which the males possess 
unusual structures, the use of which is unknown ; such are the 
BrenthidcB and the genus Rhina, the males of which possess 
enormous rostrums, which are of no direct use in this sex, 
though the corresponding organ in the other sex is of great 
use, although less developed. The LucanidcR and the 
horned Lamellicornia also exhibit great variation in size of 
the individual, more particularly in the male sex. The cases 
of variation in size in the great group of Chrysomelida were 
chiefly remarkable in the case of genera like Sagra, where 
the males possess unusually developed hind legs, for which 
we at present know of no important use. 
Mr. Kirkaldy exhibited specimens of Cymatia coleoptmtay 
Fab., from Morden, Surrey, an insect which had not before 
been recorded from the London district, and also varieties of 
Notonecta glauca, Fab. 
Herr Brunner von Wattenwyl made a communication in- 
forming the Society that a most unfortunate error had crept 
into the table of genera in his Monograph of Pseudoj^hyllides ; 
on page 9 line 1, and on page 13 line 37, instead of 
*'masonotum " should be read " mesosternum." 
