Election of Members.
M. Eduard Gruhe, Director of the Zoological Collection in the University of Breslau, and Dr. Katter, of Putbus, in the Island of Rügen, were balloted for and elected Foreign Members. Lord Dormer, formerly a Subscriber to the Society, was re-elected a Subscriber.
Exhibitions, &c.
Mr. McLachlan (on behalf of Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, of Leeds) exhibited some locusts, a swarm of which had been observed to pass over Yorkshire during last autumn. He had examined the specimens carefully, and had compared them with the descriptions of the two species which occasionally visited this country, viz., Pachytylus migratorius and P. cinerascens; and he had come to the conclusion that the specimens belonged to P. cinerascens, which he remarked was supposed to breed in some parts of the north of Europe, and therefore might be expected more frequently in this country.
Mr. W.C. Boyd exhibited living larvæ of Brachycentrus subnubilus, in their quadrilateral cases, reared from the eggs. They were of much larger size than those previously exhibited by him at the November meeting in 1873, being more than half an inch long.
Mr. S. Stevens (on behalf of Mr. Edwin Birchall) exhibited a specimen of Cirrhœdia xerampelina, var. unicolor, Agrotis Lucernea, var. latens, and what appeared to be a small var. of Zygæna filipendulæ, with the pupa-case and cocoon. They were all taken by Mr. Birchall in the Isle of Man.
Mr. Meldola referred to a request made by Mr. Riley at the meeting in July, 1875, that entomologists would supply him with the cocoons of the parasite, Microgaster glomeratus, which were much wanted in America to destroy the numerous specimens of Pieris rapæ which had been imported into that country. Mr. McLachlan had at a subsequent meeting stated that M. glomeratus was parasitic on P. brassicæ, but doubted if it ever attacked P. rapæ, and Mr. Meldola now exhibited the insects he had found parasitic on these two species—that on P. rapæ being Pteromalus imbutus, Waltl. (one of the Chalcididæ), while on P. Brassicæ he had observed Microgaster glomeratus and a Dipterous species, Tachina angusta. Specimens of all of them were exhibited. Mr. E.A. Fitch remarked that Van Vollenhoven had obtained Pimpla examiuator from P. Napi.
Mr. Smith stated that he had received a nest of Osmia muraria, sent to him from Switzerland. The cells were empty, the Osmiæ having taken their departure, but one closed cell was observed to contain a yellow larva, which ultimately proved to be that of a beetle belonging to the Cleridæ, Trichodes alvearius.
