499 

 2. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



October 30th, 1895. — 1) Geological. — 2) Jottings from the Biolo- 

 gical Laboratory, Sydney University. No, 18. On certain Points in the Struc- 

 ture of the Pearly Nautilus. By Professor W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc. 

 The author gives an account of some of the sexual modifications of the ten- 

 taculiferous lobes ; with a description more especially of the spadix , the 

 structure of which in the mature condition does not appear to have been 

 previously investigated. — 3) Botanical. — 4) On new localities for Peri- 

 patus. By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S. — Mr. Froggatt exhibited specimens 

 of two species of Scale Insects and parasites bred therefrom ; with the follow- " 

 ing Note: — »About Sydney Icerya Purchasi is not a common Coccid, seldom 

 being found in more than twos or threes upon the small branches, chiefly of 

 Acacia discolor, in the bush. This year my colleague Mr. H. G. Smith had 

 a young tree of Acacia baileyana in his garden at Tempe covered with this 

 scale and he brought me a large spray swarming with adult females , which 

 I enclosed in a box. From these I bred some hundreds of small chalcid 

 parasites [Euryischia lestophoni , Riley) , and also a number of dipterous pa- 

 rasites [Cryptochaeton iceryae, Willist.). At my request, Mr. Smith observed 

 the Coccids in situ, and he soon found them falling off; and before very long 

 they were all dead. No lady birds [Coccinellidae] or their larvae were seen 

 upon the tree, which was cleared of the pest by the minute parasites above 

 mentioned ; and it seems evident that in this part of Australia we owe much 

 more to these parasites than to their coleopterous enemies for our immunity 

 from the cottony cushion or fluted scale insects as serious pests. The Flo- 

 ridian scale [Icerya roseae, Riley and Howard) has been very plentiful upon 

 the foliage of the Grevilleas and Hakeas on the lUawarra line , and from 

 them I have bred the same species of dipterous parasite , and numbers of 

 the secondary parasite , a Chalcid that is parasitic upon the fly larvae Ophe- 

 losia Craufordi, Riley, and is therefore not an enemy of the scale insects«. — 

 Mr. Waite sent for exhibition a specimen of Peripatus Leuckartii , Sang., 

 from Colo Vale, near Mittagong, referred to in his paper. — Mr. North 

 called attention to the numbers of dead specimens of Mutton Birds [Nectris 

 hrevicaudus] , near Sydney, washed up on the beaches during the past fort- 

 night, and to which reference had been made in recent issues of the »Sydney 

 Morning Herald« by Mr. Cavendish Liardet and Mr. Woolcot-Waley. In 

 company with the former gentleman Mr. North visited the beach at Bondi 

 on the 30th inst., and found hundreds of the bodies of these birds. Several 

 fresh specimens were collected in the hope that an examination would throw 

 some light on the cause or the unusual mortality in this species. Usually it is 

 a rare bird in New South Wales waters, and just now has probably been driven 

 fromthesouth, where it is abundant, by severe gales. Mr. Brazier had recorded 

 at a meeting of this Society in December, 1880, a similar instance of mortality 

 among several species of sea birds (Proceedings. Vol. V., p. 637). 



3. SoojiormecKoe OTj^tjienie IlMiiepaTopcKaro 0()m,ecTBa JIioChtc- 



Jieô EcTeCTB03HaHÌfl, AHTponOJIOrin h 9TH0rpa(|)ÌH. (Zoologische Ab- 

 theilung der kaiserlichen Gesellschaft der Freunde der Naturwissenschaften, 

 Anthropologie und Ethnographie.) 

 Sitzung am 23. April (5. Mai) 1895. — H. M. Kyjiariim. (N. M. 

 Kulagin) referierte über den Bau des Darmcanals von Pentaslomum taenioi- 



