675 



was read from Dr. A. G. Butler, F.Z.S., on a collection of Butterflies made 

 at Salisbury, Mashonaland, in 1898, by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall. The 

 collection contained specimens of sixty-five species, which were enumerated. 

 Two new genera [Torynesis and Tarsocera) and one new species [Aslanga 

 Marshalli] were described in the paper. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., 

 read a third report on the additions to the Lizard Collection in the Natural 

 History Museum, containing a list of this class (165 in number), new or 

 previously unrepresented, of which specimens had been added to the collection 

 since 1894. The following new species were described: — Phyllodactylus 

 siamensis, AnoUs curtus^ Diploglossus nuchalis^ Varanus brevicauda^ Art/iroseps 

 (gen. nov.) Werner i^ Lygo&oma aignanum^ L. Alfredi^ and L. gastrostigma. — 

 P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



2. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



September 28th, 1898. — Mr. W. W. Froggatt exhibited a twig from 

 a fruit-tree obtained near Sydney which had 150 eggs of an undetermined 

 grasshopper attached to it in a double row; also a number of the newly hatched 

 young insects. These were of interest because of their remarkable resem- 

 blance to a common ant [Iridomyrmex purpiireus., Sm.), which is plentiful in 

 the orchards and bush about Sydney, hunting over the trees for food. It 

 seems probable that this may be a case of protective mimicry, the grasshoppers 

 perhaps being protected against the attacks of insectivorous birds, and the 

 ants also deceived. Brunner has described a remarkable little Phaneropterid 

 from the Soudan under the name of Myrmecophana fallax which is very like 

 the insect exhibited. In Brunner's species the under part of the base of the 

 abdomen is white , so that the grasshopper looks as if it had a stalked 

 abdomen when viewed from the side. As the insect was wingless and without 

 an ovipositor, it may have been immature like those exhibited. — Mr. J. 

 Mitchell, of Newcastle, forwarded a brief note announcing his discovery 

 of the print of an insect's wing in the shale overlying the Yard Seam of coal 

 at the base of Flagstaff Hill, Newcastle. There was, he believed, no previous 

 record of the presence of insect remains in rocks of the Permo-Carboniferous 

 Age in New South Wales. He hoped to be able to exhibit the specimen at 

 a future meeting. — Mr. Palmer exhibited a living Gecko, Gymnodaciylns 

 platijurus^ White, and a large snake, Diemenia superciliosa, Fischer, from the 

 Blue Mountains. Also, from the Mountains, plants of two species of Xerotes 

 (N.O. Juncaceae] with harsh cutting or wiry foliage, eaten down by stock, 

 to show the inhospitable kind of fodder to which, under stress of circum- 

 stances, the mountain cattle become habituated, and upon which they manage 

 to maintain themselves. Cattle brought from the lowlands do not, however, 

 all at once or readily take kindly to such apparently unpromising forage 

 plants. 



October 26th, 1889. — 1) On Carubidae from West Australia, sent by 

 Mr. A. M. Lea (with Descriptions of new Genera and Species, Synoptic 

 Tables, &c.) By Thomas G. Sloane. The collection reported on comprises 

 134 species, of which 33 are described as new. The specimens \vere obtained 

 in two widely separated districts. South-west Australia and the neighbourhood 

 of Champion Bay, and the East Kimberley District. — 2) Descriptions of new 

 Species of Australian Coleoptera. Part. v. By Arthur M. Lea. — 3) Bota- 



