PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 263 



and mauj others. Ur. Peaard was a Foreign Member of the Linnean 

 Society, and his name was perhaps most familiar in connexion with his 

 work on Rhizopoda. 



Dr. Penard's nomination was cordially received by all the Fellows 

 present. 



Mr. Heron-Allen, in announcing the appointment by the Council of 

 Mr. A. E. Bull to the post of Assistant Secretary and Librarian, paid a 

 well-merited tribute to the excellence of the work carried out by Mr. 

 Parsons during his long and honouralile occupancy of that post, and 

 stated that a suggestion had been made and enthusiastically adopted that 

 the Society should signify its ap]>reciation of Mr. Parsons' services by a 

 testimonial, which would take the form of an illuminated address, 

 accompanied by such a sum of money as would enable him to provide 

 himself with some suitalile memento or souvenir of his long connexion 

 with the Society. The Council had opened a subscription list which had 

 already assumed very reasonal)le proportions, and as a large number of 

 Fellows of the Society would wish to join with the Council in according 

 Mr. Parsons a token of their regard, he desired to announce that the 

 Treasurer would be glad to receive contributions in furtherance of the 

 scheme. 



Mr. Enock then gave his lecture on " Fairy Flies and their Hosts." 



In his preliminary remarks Mr. Enock said that at a Conversazione 

 given by this Society at King's College in ls75 or 1S76, the late 

 Frederick Fitch exhilnted what he called on the card a " Fairy Fly," 

 wliicli had l)een caught in ;( spider's web, and he (Mr. Enock) at once 

 determined to pursue the study of these little creatures. In June 1876 

 he found several species in a spider's web in his garden, and since then 

 he had spent all the spare time at his disposal in following out their life- 

 histories. Up to four years ago he had worked quite alone, but since 

 then in collaljoration with Charles Waterhouse, of the Natural History 

 Museum. The first step was to affix names to the various species. When 

 he first commenced his work there were only short Latin descriptions 

 extant as a guide to identification, and the only illustration known was 

 that of a very minute insect drawn in 1797 by Dr. Grey of the Royal 

 Society, and published in the Linnajan Society's Transactions. ]Many 

 years before Linnfeus had described a fly under the name of Ichneumini 

 ])imctum, but it was impossible to identify this fly with any of the present 

 species. Dr. Grey could not decide whether the species illustrated by him 

 was the IchiiPiimoii pn act inn of Linnteus or not, ])ut Francis Walker 

 named it AiutpliP!^ punctum — though this designation also had since been 

 found to be erroneous. 



In the course of his lecture Mr. Enock gave emphasis to the fact that 

 the eggs of the ]\Iym;irid;>3 were always to be found embedded within the 

 ova of other species of fly which were used as hosts. 



A number of very beautiful lantern slides, illustrated Mr. Enock's 

 lecture, some of the most interesting and instructive being microphoto- 

 graphs representing the life-history of a fairy fly from the time its ovum 

 was deposited in its host. 



