70 [March, 



Wednesday, February ^rd, 1909. —Dr. F. A. DiXET, President, in the Chair. 



The President announced that lie had nominated Dr. Karl Jordan, Ph.D., 

 Dr. George Blmidell Longstaff, M.A., M.D., and Mr. Charles Owen Waterhouse, 

 Vice-Presidents for the Session 1909—10. 



Mr. Leopold Arnon Vidler, of the Carmelite Stone House, Rye, was elected 

 a Fellow of the Society. 



The President announced the resignation of Professor Edward B. Poulton, 

 D.Sc, M.A., F.R.S., as a Member of the Council, and the election of Professor 

 Thomas Hudson Beare, F.R.S.E., to serve in his place. 



Dr. K. Jordan exhibited some Oriental Papilios illustrating polymorphism, 

 and demonstrated that in P. clytia and /'. dissiinilis wc have to deal with one 

 dimorphic species, and that P. pnradoxa and caiiims also are forms of one species 

 only. Mr. O. E. Janson, a cockroach and a beetle the Celebes, exhibiting a 

 remarkable case of mimicry— the former apparently an undescribed species of 

 Prosoplecta, the latter identified as Coelophoraformosa, Ci'otch. Mr. W. Parkinson 

 Curtis sent for exhibition two specimens, a $ and ? , of Agrotis eestlff ialis, ^ott., 

 from Purbeck, Dorset. When working the sandhills he saw the dead ? apparently 

 sitting on the grass, and then noticed that she had a part of the c? appendages 

 attached to her. He then found the g , which a common earwig was busily engaged 

 in devouring. The earwig, he thought, had attacked the pair in cop., though he 

 had never noticed any similar case before. Dr. T. A. Chapman felt it impossible to 

 accept the conclusions arrived at by the exhibitor with regard to the earwig. An 

 earwig would probably not attack a living Agrotis ; if it did the Agrotis would 

 probably attack it successfully. It seemed evident that some accident had happened 

 to the moths, whether from some bird or beast there was no evidence to show. 

 Mr. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited a specimen of Aoridium peregrinum from a swarm, 

 estimated to number about lOTJ millions, that visited Las Palmas, Grand Canary, 

 in October, 1908, and adi'agonfly, Tramea basilaris, whicli occurred in such numbers 

 on one occasion in Portuguese Congo that the natives mistook them for a swarm of 

 locusts. The Rev. F. D. Morice, photo-micrographs of the " saws " in ten British 

 sawflies — species of the genus Dolerus. After briefly alluding to the specific 

 characters presented by them, to certain points in which all alike differed from the 

 ordinary tenon-saws employed by carpenters, he invited suggestions which might 

 account for these differences. Might it be inferred, he asked, from this that the 

 insect's saw is made to cut not like the carpenter's saw by a push, but by a pull^ 

 and if so, is it because the latter movement involves less risk or damage to these 

 delicate structures through bending or breakage ? Again, what could be the use of 

 certain extremely fine denticulations at the base of each tooth close to the sinus 

 separating it from the tooth next adjoining? A discussion followed in which 

 Prof. T. Hudson Beare supported on the whole the hypotheses suggested by the 

 exhibitor. Dr. T. A. Chapman was strongly of opinion that the name " saw " for 

 these instruments, though well describing their general appearance, was misapplied 

 as regards their function. They were really knives, all their cutting was done 

 during the forward movement, the notches being merely a ratchet to hold one 

 " saw" in place whilst the other advanced, as they alternately moved. — H. Rowland- 

 Beown, Hon. Secretary. 



