27 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



At the meeting of the Club held on October 26th, 1909, Prof. 

 E. A. Minchin, M.A., F.Z.S., President, in the Chair, the minutes 

 of the meeting held on June 4th were read and confirmed. 



Messrs. C. Morris, H. C. Cheavin, F. Polph, S. W. Brett, 

 H. Streatfeild, H. H. Mortimer and W. B. Boyes were balloted 

 for and duly elected members of the Club. 



The List of Donations to the Club was read and the thanks 

 of the members were voted to the donors. Among these may 

 be specially mentioned four preparations of the diatom Surirella 

 elegans, three of these showing " girdles," and one " double 

 valves," all prepared and presented by Mr. T. Chalkley Palmer, 

 of Media, Pennsylvania. 



The Hon. Treasurer, Mr. F. J. Perks, read a paper communi- 

 cated by Mr. W. Wesche, F.H.M.S., on " The Life-History of the 

 Tachinid Fly, Phorocera serriventris^ Bondani, and on the Vivi- 

 parous Habit of other Dij)tera." The author said that in 1906 

 he figured and described in Trans. Linn. Soc. the remarkable 

 ovipositor of this fly, and in Journal R. M. S., 1908, the biological 

 problems presented by its morphology and surroundings were 

 dealt with. At Mersea Island, on the Essex coast, he had been 

 able during the past summer to capture and watch a number of 

 this species. They were never very plentiful, and are difficult to 

 recognise, and until a specimen was examined with a lens it was 

 not possible to be certain that it was not Blepharidea, Plagla, 

 Frontina, or one of the smaller Sarcojyhaga. The specimens 

 noticed were usually seen resting on a leaf, often a bramble, and 

 from the number taken the males were present in the proportion 

 of two to one female. The female is provided with a relatively 

 very large, strong, sharply pointed hook, not at all unlike a sting, 

 which is folded back under the abdomen, and lies, when not in 

 iise, in the median line. There are also chitinous ventral plates. 



