411 



2. Linnean Society of London. 



15th June, 1882. — Prof. E. RayLankester read «Notes on some 

 Habits of the Scorpions , Androctomis funestris Ehr. and Euscorpius italiens 

 Roes. Of the former he related their manner of burrowing in the sand, ma- 

 king horizontal tunnels occasionally 8 inches long. The process of exuviation 

 was also witnessed on several occasions, when the scorpion pushing its large 

 chelae into the sand scraped rapidly backwards with the three anterior pairs 

 of walking legs. The specimens of Androctomis evidently were timid; in 

 walking they raise their body, and the tail and sting are carried highly arched 

 over the body ; in this mode of carriage differing from Euscorpius which keeps 

 its body low and flat and drags the tail behind with only the very top bent. 

 The Androctomis only fed at dusk, and then seizing its prey by the left 

 chelae, archedly swung its tail over its head and peirced its victim with its 

 sting, afterwards inserting its short chelicerae and sucking in the nutriment 

 of its victim. The so-called combs or pectiniform appendages ordinarily do 

 not appear to be sensitive, they may possibly become more so during the 

 breeding season. As to the old story of the suicide of the scorpion when 

 surrounded by a ring of fire, this statement is to be partially explained by 

 an individual accidentally lacerating itself by the sting when driven to ex- 

 tremities. The Euscorpius observed occasionally fought furiously with each 

 other and then used their chelae but never the sting. ■ — A paper was read 

 »On a new genus of Collembola [Sinella] allied to Degeeria Nicole t«, by Mr. Ge- 

 orge Bro ok. It difi'ers from Degeeria in having 4 eyes not 16, in the absence 

 of the long abdominal hairs, and in the different construction of the claws 

 and mucrones. S. curioseta is a new species and on which the genus Sinella 

 is founded ; examples bred and were watched through their immature stages 

 onwards. — Mr. R. McLachlan read a communication »On a Marine Cad- 

 dis Fly [Philanisus Walker = Anomalostoma Brewer) from New Zealand«. Ma- 

 terial for examination of this curious discovery was sent the author by Prof. 

 Hutto n of Canterbury, N. Z. The larvae etc. were obtained in rock pools 

 between high and low water mark in Lyttleton Harbour. A small tubular 

 cylindrical pupal case with attached fragments of a coralline, a larva some- 

 what damaged, and disconnected portions of others enabled the discrimina- 

 tion of the genus above mentioned to be made out. — Prof. P. M. Duncan 

 gave the salient points of a paper «On the genus Pleurechinus L. Agass., its 

 classificatory position and alliances«. After noting the diagnosis oi Pleurechinus 

 by L. Agassiz and the description of the species P. hothryoides of A. Agass. in 

 the Revision of the Echini, the linking of it to the fossil forms from Gand 

 described by D'Archiac and Haime was shown to be erroneous. The 

 supposed affinities with Opechinus Desor, a genus of no value were con- 

 sidered and the minute anatomy of the test of Pleurechinus was shown to 

 correspond closely with that of Temnopleurus . Placing the form (with 

 A. Agassiz) as a subgenus of Temnopleurus, the distinctness of it from 

 Temnechinus and from the nummulitic so-called Temnopleuridae of DAr- 

 chiac and Haime was proved. — Mr. J. Maule Campbell detailed some 

 interesting observations »On a probable case of Parthenogenesis in the 

 House Spider [Tegenaria Gugonii)((. He concluded by submitting that the 

 fertility of one of the female spiders in question after a confinement of 1 1 

 months, during which time she twice moulted and aiterwards laid eggs which 



