Entomological Society of London.
May 1, 1878.— H.W. Bates, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., President, in the chair.
Mr. Henry John Elwes, F.L.S., F.Z.S., of Preston House, Cirencester, was elected an ordinary Member. Mr. Peter Cameron, of 31, Willow Bank Crescent, was elected a Subscriber.
Mr. Dunning drew attention to the fact that the present meeting marked the forty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Society.
Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited a specimen of the Hemipteron Tetroda bilineata, Walk., as a remarkable instance of immunity from the effects of damp, the same having been kept in a relaxing-pan for more than four months.
Mr. Distant also communicated a paper entitled " Notes on some Hemiptera-Homoptera, with Descriptions of new Species," in which he drew attention to the uncertainty of generic calculations as to geographical distribution ; the Homoptera affording a good illustration in the family Cercopida, especially the genus Cercopis.
The President remarked that the old coleopterous genus Buprestis had, like Cercopis, at one time almost ceased to exist, through the generic subdivision it had undergone.
Part 1 of the 'Transactions' for 1878 was on the table. — W.L. Distant, Secretary.
White Whale at the Westminster Aquarium. — A specimen of the White Whale (Beluga), taken on the coast of Labrador, was safely housed in the large tank on the 29th May. The consignment originally consisted of four, two of which were intended for the Westminster Aquarium, but one of these died on the voyage ; its death was the result of an accident, caused by a heavy roll of the ' Circassian,' in which steamer they were conveyed to Liverpool. Unlike the one received at Westminster last year, this specimen appears to be in good health and to have suffered little from its enforced confinement for five weeks in a large box, packed on a layer of sea-weed. In transit they are kept thoroughly moist — an indispensable condition of their existence — by the application of water every three or four minutes, both day and night. The specimen at the Aquarium is nearly full grown ; its age is estimated at five years ; length over all thirteen feet six inches. It has so far recovered from the effects of its long confine- ment as to remain some minutes at a time under water and to consume between fifteen and twenty pounds of live eels a day.
