20 
l>een found by Mi'. Donisthorpc at C'hiddingfold, and ( 'urtimix Inu anx 
by :\h-. Heasfer, at Oxshott. I notice that Mr. Cliampion considers 
the iirst as “ interestin'^ and unexpected,” the latter as-an “ unlooked- 
for,” addition to our list. Then an old member of this society, IMr. 
Elliman, has captured I {miialdta clariijcia, near Tring; llarjiahis 
frocUalii, near Ipswich, by Mr. IMorley ; whilst Anaxpis latijialjiis, sup¬ 
posed to be mixed up in Jfritish collections with A. tmhsctacea , is 
recorded as ]3ritish from specimens found at Bhirley, Caterham, and 
Darenth Wood. The Hon. C. N. Rothschild has discovered another 
flea new to science, which be has named 7’//p/dop.si/ffa sjii’ctabilm. Two 
new species of Diptera have been added—( 'crojilatiis scsiuides and 
Fraiienfcldia ndtrirosa. Four new species of Hemiptera— Zylacoridfs 
hri'n'iiennix, I’oeciloxriiKtim riiliu’ratKs, Plaioria hai'rcnHjninKjt, and Aspi- 
diotiia britanniciis, the later new to science. The Hymenoptera added 
to the British list include Aiiiain'()n(‘iiiatiix ridiiatii!<, Dolcnis fmiiasns, 
Ik (libbosiis, ]), iiKiidosiix^ and J'^iiijdintiis couiilltni) , whilst JIi/drujitdo 
si/ln’atris, and I lniwndcx iiiicstfalicKs are the additional Neuroptera. 
As you all know, I have recently been engaged in preparing mi 
exhaustive account of our British species of the Anthrocerids, and, in 
doing this, 1 have covered the widest possilile ground and obtained my 
material from every possible source. Such a method as this applied 
to any large group of closely allied species is almost certain to give an 
abundance of food for rellection, and I can imagine no better family 
for this purpose than the Anlhrocn-idac. Our British species are few 
enough in number, but they afi’ord representatives of some of the chief 
of the various sections into which the unwieldy genus Anthniceia 
naturally breaks. “ What is a species? ” is a question that faces one 
at every turn. 
Among the Anthrocerids the difficulty does not lie so much in the 
intergrading of the species themselves, as in the tendency for a given 
condition of environment to produce its own particular race, not that 
intergrading does not occur, but the difficulty lies more frequently in 
the determination whether there is sufficient distinction capable of 
definition between two well-marked forms to warrant one in consider¬ 
ing them species, or whether the actual amount of definable ditterence 
is so small that it appears illogical so to consider them. 
Unfortunately, in these groups, two out of the three early stages of 
an insect’s life yield no characters that can be seized upon as being of 
value in this direction. One can determine at once a large part of our 
lepidopterous fauna by an examination of the eggs alone, but the eggs 
of Anthrocerids are, in their broad characters, all precisely similar. 
The other stage which is equally generalised, and similar throughout 
almost all species of the same genus, is that of the pupa. 'I’he larva*, 
too, have been subjected to so little specialisation that their structural 
uniformity is only equalled by their general similarity, a dillerence in 
ground colour and the size of the black markings before and after the 
Avarts (which extend in similar longitudinal series throughout) again 
being almost tbe only available characters at our disposal. 'I'he 
imagines, as you all knoAV, may be described roughly as having the 
forewings of a green or purplish (the sexual dimorphism that these 
colours should present having rarely been definitely specialised to the 
.sex), whilst the crimson s))ots and blotches with which the forewings 
are ornamented, although maintaining what may be called an aveiage 
