http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. London,The Society. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/11516 1911: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51196 Page(s): Text, Text, Text Contributed by: Smithsonian Libraries Sponsored by: Smithsonian Generated 14 July 2014 7:51 AM http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/pdf4/028794000051196
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The following text is generated from uncorrected OCR. [Begin Page: Text] ( xxvii ) Enfield, and Tavistock respectively, and for comparison, B. duplicatus, Keys, from the Blean Woods and Birchington, Kent. Mr. F. B. Jennings remarked that he took B. jiellucidiis on buttercups and inquired whether any were present where these specimens were taken. Commander Walker replied that there were no flowers at all, only short grass, in the locality where his Oxford specimens were taken. Myrmeoophilous Lepidopteka. Commander Walker also showed a series of specimens illustrating the life-history of Cyclotorna, Meyrick, a genus of Myrmecophilous Lepidoptera, from Queensland, sent by Mr. F. P. Dodd with his paper on the insects subsequently read. Myrmecophilous Acari. Mr. Df)NisTHORPE exhibited live specimens of Antennojihorus uhlmanni, Haller, on the ^ from a nest of Lasnis umbraitis at Woking. Only two specimens have been taken before in Britain by Michael, in an ants' nest at Land's End. Also Uropoda philoctena fastened on the strigil of a $ of the same ant from the same locality. This species is new
to Britain. Probable New Species of Hypoderma. -Mi-. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited larvae of a species of Hypoderma received by the Secretary from India from Mr. J. E. Middleton, with a note that they had been taken from a gazelle and were probably an undescribed species. Mr. Waterhouse took charge of them for the Museum, but expressed the strongest doubts as to the possibility of determining a species of Hypoderma from the larvae. There is, however, no Indian Hypoderma described hitherto. A New Species of Mymar. Mr. F, Enock exhibited a photomicrograph of a new species of Mym,ar, accompanied by one of A. ptdchelhis for comparison, and read the following note : *' It is with no small amount of pleasure that I am able to record the discovery of another species of that most remarkable genus of ovivorous parasites, Mymar, Hal., popularly known as the Battledore-wing Fly, so named from the shape o? the anterior wings, which resemble a Ions-handled battle- [Begin Page: Text] ( xxviii ) dore, while the posterior pair are but mere bristles about one-
sixth the length of the anterior, to which they are united by three small hooks. " This new species I was fortunate in capturing, last Saturday, June 3rd, 1911, at Burnham Beeches, where I had been sweeping for Mymaridae, but with very poor results only twelve common species. Noticing some long grass, I swept it. Sitting down to examine the small heap of minute bits of sharp grass stems and seeds at the bottom of my net, I saw the familiar form of il/ymar struggling to get free from the debris, and knowing that directly it did, it would ' hop, skip and jump,' I quickly placed a phial over it, and corked it safely. I then saw that its left antenna was broken. "On reaching home I killed my twelve common species, and then Mymar, in the thirteeitth phial. Proceeding to set it out, I found the battledore wings in a tangle, and endeavoured to brush them out ; a small piece of ' fluff ' kept getting in the way, so placing the fly under my microscope to see which way I could best remove the ' fluff,' I focussed it, and for some moments I could not believe my own eyes, for instead of ' fluff ' it was the posterior wing three times the length of an ordinary one of Mymar pulchellus, and I began to realise that I had before me a new species for not only were the posterior wings greatly elongated into a very narrow battledore with six long hairs on the lower margin, but the anterior wings were surrounded with sixty long hairs instead of the thirty-five of Mymar
piilchellus. In other respects the colour was much the same. " As soon as I could, I made a photomicrograph of it of thirty diameters magnification. " Considering the importance of this addition to the littleknown British Mymaridae, I felt that it had appeared at a very opportune time, when so many distinguished visitors had come for the Coronation of His Most Gracious Majesty King George V, so I suggested to Mr. Waterhouse that we should christen it Mymar regalis." Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse commented on the extreme interest of this discovery, remarking that the Mymaridae have very small hindwings, in Mymar they are reduced to a mere bristle ; [Begin Page: Text] ( xxix ) the gap between tliis and Stephanodes, for example, which is very great, is partially bridged by Mr. Euock's discovery, and possibly other links may be found in the future. African Charaxes. Mr. H. Rowland-Brown exhibited some drawers of Miss Fountaine's bred series of African Charaxes. Professor Poulton commented on these, regretting that the parent had not been preserved with the corresponding
offspring in each case. A PoMPiLiD Mimicked by a Reduviid Bug. Dr. Chapman exhibited a box of insects to illustrate a case of mimicry, on which he read the following note : " In March and April, both at Hyeres and at Amelie-les- Bains, my attention was attracted to a Reduviid bug. Pirates hyhridas, Scop. I followed up one or two on the wing, taking them for Pompilid Hymenoptera, and when they settled on the ground their movements were precisely those of Pompilus when hunting on the ground sharp, active, jerky, and taking wing at once if alarmed. The red colouring on the elytra was, when running, much like the x'ed of a Pompilid body between or under the wings. After the first one or two specimens one of course easily distinguished the bug for what it was. " One would, at first, take this for a case of Batesian mimicry, but on picking up the bug, it often occurred that one was stung, about as sharply as many Pompilids do, and some ai'e fairly proficient therein. The sting was of course the thrust of the beak or proboscis, of which not a few Reduviid bugs can make effective weapons of defence. The sting not only enhances the resemblance to an Aculeate, but gives a thoroughly Miillerian aspect to the association. " There are very many bugs of similar form and brilliant coloration, Pyrrhocoris, etc. These are mostly slow-moving
and harmless, and have, I imagine, no connection with the species under notice, but are probably cases of warning coloration of distasteful morsels. " In the Cambridge Nat. History, Dr. Sharp qviotes Seitz as recording a Reduviid at Corcovado in Brazil that exactly resembles a wasp of the genus Pepsis, and moves in the same wasp-like manner, and Prof. Poulton tells me of a British