1855.] Linnean Society. 379 



by long continued researches to regard as being connected with the 

 external antennae. 



The paper was accompanied with many carefully made drawings, 

 illustrative of Crustacean structure generally. 



May 1. 



Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Francis Tagart, Esq., was elected a Fellow ; and Prof. Goeppert, 

 M. Hofmeister, and M. Planchon, were elected Foreign Members. 



Read a paper entitled, " Notes on the White Secretion of the 

 Flata limbata, and on its relation to the Insect White Wax of China." 

 By Dr. Charles Murchison, formerly of the Bengal Medical Service ; 

 communicated by J. D. Hooker, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



The author's observations were drawn from an insect which he 

 had found in the month of April 1854, in the jungles in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rangoon, specimens of which were exhibited to the 

 Society. This insect was observed adhering in clusters to the 

 leaves and twigs of various species of plants in the jungles, impart- 

 ing to them a beautiful snow-white appearance. On endeavouring 

 to secure one of the leaves with the adhering insects, a number of 

 perfect hemipterous insects furnished with four wings, and a little 

 larger than a common house-fly, were observed to spring by sudden 

 jerks in various directions, leaving the white matter still adhering to 

 the leaf. On close inspection, this white matter was found to 

 consist of a number of insect- cases, each furnished with six legs, 

 and with a dense tuft of white pectinated appendages adhering to 

 the dorsal and lateral aspects of the posterior segments. These 

 appendages were about two-thirds of an inch in length, and in the 

 fresh state spread out in all directions from the tail, some of them 

 curving upwards and forwards towards the head. They were 

 extremely fragile, the slightest touch reducing them to a fine white 

 powder, with which the whole body of the insect was thickly 

 bestrewed. Distinct from these there were on each insect two 

 smaller tufts of straight white filaments, exhibiting under the 

 microscope the ordinary characters of the hairy appendages found 



