228 



life-history of Mantispa as being a remarkable instance of what 

 had been termed hypermetamorphosis. The paper was illustrated 

 by coloured drawings of the eggs and larvae of Mantispa, and by 

 specimens of each exhibited under microscopes in the room. 



The President said he was familiar with the appearance of the 

 newly hatched larva, and he agreed with Mr. Lewis that there 

 was no difficulty in recognising it as the young of Mantis. To 

 a certain extent they mimic the young of the black ant, and 

 sometimes run with, and may easily be mistaken for, them in 

 such instances. In the South of France he had seen them eating 

 small green frogs. It was not often one observed insects 

 capturing and eating vertebrates. 



Mr. H. Gunnery, of Acomb, York, sent for exhibition a large 

 number of botanical preparations, some especially good sections, 

 showing mitotic figures and various stages of nuclear division, 

 being much admired. The thanks of the meeting were accorded 

 to Mr. Gunnery and also to Mr. C. Baker, who kindly provided 

 the microscopes used. 



Mr. Gunnery also sent a number of lantern slides, mostly 

 photomicrographs, some of excellent preparations of Lilium, 

 showing various stages of nuclear division. Another good photo- 

 graph was of Empusa muscae, disease of house-fly a I..S. of 

 abdomen of fly, showing the fungal hyphae breaking out at the 

 a,bdominal segments. 



Mr. Paulson said he thought some of the slides were of great 

 interest, as for a long time no one knew what became of the 

 secondary nucleus, but slide No. 8 showed them that the secondary 

 nucleus did play an important part in fertilisation. Some very 

 interesting experiments were performed in Toulouse in connection 

 with this subject, and it was studying the effects as regards 

 secondary fertilisation that had led to considerable improvements 

 in maize. He felt that they owed Mr. Gunnery their thanks for 

 sending these slides for exhibition. 



Exhibited by Charles H. Caffyn : Porphyritic vitreous Rhyolite 

 (Obsidian), Sandy Braes, co. Antrim, Ireland. The Rhyolites 

 are volcanic eruptive rocks with the same chemical composition 

 as the plutonic granites. The difference in texture has been 

 caused by the rhyolite cooling rapidl}^ at the surface when 

 extruded as lava, while the granite has consolidated very slowly 

 under considerable pressure. 



