NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 527 



burrowing in .sandy soil in a largef tube. These Larvae prey on 

 beetle grubs of the family Scarabaeidae, which they suck dry. 

 They should therefore be of great economic value, especially in 

 helping to prevent the destruction of golf-courses etc., now so 

 prevalent in New South Wales, and due to the abundance of 

 Scarabaeid grubs in the sandy soil. (2). A number of the 

 same larvse in alcohol. (3). Fresh cocoons of the same insect, 

 containing living pupa?, due to emerge as imagines early next 

 November. (4). Cocoons of Thynnus variabilis Kirby, dug 

 out from sandy soil . Two males were bred out last week, while 

 another cocoon was found to contain a larva carrying an extra- 

 ordinary parasitic Hyruenopterous larva upon it, which it is 

 hoped will be bred out later on. (5). Living Pupa? of species 

 of Dipterous flies belonging to the family Bombyliidae, also dug 

 from the sandy soil. (6) . Living larva? of the Limacodid Moth 

 Apoda xylomeli Scott, found feeding upon a dwarf Banksia. 

 This extraordinary larva also feeds upon the Native Pear and 

 the Waratah. 



Dr. Tillyard also mentioned that Dr. ('. P. Alexander, one 

 of the leading Dipterists of the United States, had written to 

 him requesting his help in obtaining a portrait of the late Mr. 

 F. Skuse, of the Australian Museum, for a gallery of famous 

 Dipterists, together with authentic records of his life and works, 

 the latter being regarded at the present day as some of the 

 finest ever published upon systematic Dipterology. 



Mr. J. J. Fletcher re-exhibited specimens of Grevillea buxi- 

 folia R. Br., with bipistillate flowers, in order to point out that, 

 as he had quite accidentally found out recently, the late Baron 

 von Mueller had recorded the occurrence of bipistillate and tripis- 

 tillate flowers in G. Benwickiana. In his description of the latter 

 species [These Proceedings, 1886, p. 1105] the Baron says — 

 ••The majority of the flowers on the transmitted specimens, as 

 well as numerous others sent subsequently at my desire by Mr. 

 Bauerlen, are bipistillate, two ovaries developing on distinct 

 stipites, each with its own style and stigma, or occasionally two 

 of the pistils still from the same flow r er are connate into one; 

 rarely even a third pistil is developed. This tendency to floral 

 duplication extends partly to the petals, which sometimes be- 

 come augmented in number also, while the often scattered stalk- 

 lets may appear solitary through the concrescence of two. 

 Analagous teratological states of flowers seem not to have been 



