24 [June, 1879. 



ObitiutriT. 



A. Edouard Pictet. — The Swiss Journals announce the decease of this gentleman 

 at the early age of 44, having survived his father (the well-known author on Neurop- 

 tera and Palteontologj) only seven years {cf. Ent. Mo. Mag., viii, p. 294). As an 

 entomologist he was principally known by his "Synopsis des Nevropteres d'Espagne" 

 (1865), a finely illustrated work, based upon the materials collected by him (in com- 

 pany with Herr Meyer-Diir) during a journey in Spain in 1859. He was formerly 

 an officer in the Swiss army, and of late his time appears to have been almost fully 

 occupied by the municipal and other duties that the esteem in which he was held in 

 the city of Geneva imposed upon him, and latterly he had, we think, done but little 

 entomological woi'k; nevertheless, he was deeply interested in the recent explorations 

 into the physical conditions of Lac Leman, in which he aided Forel, and in connection 

 with which he visited London a few years ago to inspect the " Loan Exhibition," at 

 South Kensington. The name of Pictet is one of the most honoured in Geneva, and 

 the family has furnished many eminent scientific men, including the subject of this 

 notice and his father, besides Raoul Pictet the investigat6r of the liquefaction of 

 gases, and also the illustrious Saussures. ^ 



Entomological Society of London, 2nd April, 1879. — J. W. Dunning, Esq., 

 M.A., F.L.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. McLachlan exhibited the cases of sixteen species of Brazilian Caddie-flies, 

 and the insects bred from the larvae that manufactured some of them, forwarded by 

 Dr. Fritz Miiller. They included three forms of Helicopsifche, with the insects bred 

 from two ; many of the black Dentalium-Yi^e cases formerly considered as shells, but 

 which Yallot had described as Phryganea grumicha, the insects bred from which 

 proved to belong to the LeptoceridcB, but of a new genus, and of uncertain affinities ; 

 cases referred by Dr. F. Miiller to the HydroptilidcB, upon the insects of which was 

 founded the genus Peltopsyclie (F. Miiller), but differing from the usual habits of 

 the family in having fixed cases ; and other interesting forms. Extracts from Dr. 

 Miiller's letters, concerning several of the forms, were read. 



Mr. Stainton alluded to the saltatory habits of very young larva? of Ilantis 

 reUgiosa, as observed in examples communicated to him in 18(36 by the late Mr. J. 

 T. Moggridge, and thought it was a case in which the relationship and affinities of 

 animals are often more expressed in the embryonic than in the adult form. 



Sir S. S. Saunders exhibited a stocking-like structure from the Fiji Islands, said 

 to be the pi'oduct of a spider. It was asserted that the natives induce the spiders 

 to manufacture these articles by placing split bamboos arranged in the outline of 

 bags in the places frequented by the spiders, and use the web so formed for the 

 purpose of making a kind of cloth. 



Notes were communicated by Mr. Slater on certain flowers that are systematically 

 avoided by honey-seeking insects, citing more particularly the dahlia, passion flower, 

 crown imperial, and oleander. 



Miss Ormerod read " Observations on the effects of low temperature upon larva?, 

 with especial reference to the past winter," in which she stated that no larvse ob- 

 served by her had suffered any material inconvenience from the late severe and 

 continued frost. Mr. Stainton fully agreed with Miss Ormerod in her genei-al con- 

 clusions, but alluded to some of the leaf-mining Tineina, such as Litkocolleiis mes- 

 saniella, Tischeria marginea, Neptictda aurella, &.C., the larvte of which had suffered 

 greatly, because the cold had killed the leaves in which they mined. Mr. McLaclilan 

 said it was not, as a rule, cold that killed larvfe, but wet. 



Mr. Distant read a paper " On new species of Hemiptera collected by the late 

 Dr. Stoliczka during the Expedition to Kashgar in 1873-74 "; the species, as a 

 whole, were European in character. 



