Wellington Philosophical Society. 663 



another much smaller one in his son's collection ; and it seemed to him 

 that this was just one of those groups which ought to he worked out on 

 the spot. It was an endemic group of Orthoptera, being entirely re- 

 stricted to New Zealand, and did not therefore call for comparison with 

 forms inhabiting other countries and not readily accessible to collectors 

 here. It was, of course, possible that we might make mistakes in 

 discriminating new genera and species; but, on the other hand, speci- 

 mens sent to our great centres of learning did not always receive the 

 attention we looked for. He might mention that in 1886 he found in a 

 cave at Rotorua a beautifully-banded species of Macropathus, which he 

 believed to be new. He took to England with him a bottle full of speci- 

 mens in spirits, and sent them to one of the museums, where there was 

 a specialist for such work, hoping to have the species named and de- 

 scribed. But to this day, so far as he could learn, the stopper had 

 remained in the bottle, and he would probably have to investigate the 

 subject for himself on his next visit to Europe. 



Sir James Hector exhibited some fine specimens of British 

 and New Zealand birds, mounted by Mr. Yuill ; and Mr. 

 Hudson exhibited specimens of the weta to compare with 

 those submitted by Sir W. Buller. 



Ninth Meeting: 17th October, 1894. 



Major-General Schaw, President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. " On some Peculiar Cases of the Eeflection of 

 Light," by Major-General Schaw, C.B., E.E. (Transactions, 

 p. 535.) 



2. " On a Peculiar Appearance in a Cloud during the Day- 

 light," by A. J. Lichfield. 



Abstract. 



The author described an iridescent cloud from which the spectrum 

 rays were diffused, and not arranged as in a rainbow. The sky was 

 clear, with passing clouds, but no other cloud presented the same 

 phenomenon. 



Sir J. Hector considered the President's paper most interesting; and 

 such accurate observations were of great use. With regard to the light in 

 the cloud, it might have been caused by ice, it might have been an 

 electrified cloud discharging hail, or it was possibly due to smoke in the 

 atmosphere from a bush fire. 



Mr. Tregear had observed similar lights in clouds, but could not 

 account for it. 



The President thought it must have been produced by ice, and that 

 it was a portion of a halo formed where a frozen cloud was in the position 

 required to produce the effect. 



3. "A Synoptical List of Coccids reported from Austral- 

 asia and the Pacific Islands up to December, 1894," by 

 W. M. Masked. (Transactions, p. 1.) 



The author read extracts from the paper, and made some remarks 

 upon the manner in which new species were made. He said that the 

 majority of scientific workers were more anxious to have their names 

 attached to specimens than to apply themselves to any real work of the 



