606 Proceedings. 



in nature. Hence the contention of the impressionists that the con- 

 ventional style was false, and the practice on their part of representing 

 some portion of the picture in detail and slurring over the rest. He 

 considered that the conventional art and the pictures taken hy Mr. 

 McKay's process, representiug both the nearest and most distant objects 

 with perfect clearness, were truer, both to art and nature, as the 

 necessary change of focus in the human eye was so rapidly and un- 

 consciously eSected. ilr. JIcKay's discovery, therefore, was quite as 

 important on artistic as on scientific grounds. 



The President said that members had overlooked the fact that Mr. 

 McKay's discovery would materially lessen the load photographers have 

 to carry at the present time, and that the number of lenses required 

 would by the same means be lessened. The pictures referred to by Mr. 

 Field were taken by a good but ordinary instrument. ^Ir. McKay's 

 invention would be invaluable to geologists. 



Fifth Meeting : 8ih October, 1890. 



G. Hulke, F.C.S., President, in the chair. 



New Member. — W. Barton. 



Papers. — 1. " Further Coccid Notes ; with Descriptions of 

 New Species from New Zealand, Austraha. and Fiji," by 

 W. M. Maskell, F.E.M.S., Corr. Mem. Eoy. Soc. of South 

 Australia. {Transactions, p. 1.) 



Mr. Maskell said that as this was a technical paper he would not 

 read it in full. He might explain that it was in continuation of similar 

 papers read last year and in former years on work he had been engaged 

 in for the last fourteen years. It described about twenty new species — 

 five from Australia, one from Fiji, and the rest from New Zealand. 

 Plates figuring these accompanied the paper. The paper also contained 

 remarks on formerly-described species in this and other parts of the world. 

 He |also exhibited about a hundred and fifty different species of insects, 

 including those he had already described, together with others from 

 various localities. He regretted much that entomologists generally did 

 not think it worth their while to study this particular family, the Cocciche. 

 He believed that he himself was the only person in New Zealand who 

 had published anything about it. Outside New Zealand there were not 

 more than eight or ten who gave attention to scale-insects. This was a 

 bad thing, and he felt it much, as he had here no one to discuss the sub- 

 ject with, or to correct him if he fell into any errors. Two gentlemen at 

 Reefton collected for and assisted him greatly, but they did not write on 

 the subject, and relied entirely on him for determinations. There was no 

 one to keep him straight, so to say. But chiefly he regretted that ento- 

 mologists would not depart from the general gi-oove of butterflies, moths, 

 and beetles. We knew pretty well all that can be known of these ; at 

 least, their study had been so close that the varieties seemed nowadays 

 only trivial. In the Coccidcc there was infinite variety, and work of the 

 greatest interest — a variety of life-history, habits, and customs that 

 seemed greater than that afforded by any other branch of entomology. 

 He gave instances of peculiarities in these insects — wonderful vitahty jn 

 some cases, and about the boring habits of one particular insect after it 

 had thrown off legs, mouth, &c. — air tending to prove that these little 

 despised creatures were more interesting for study than all the butter- 

 flies. 



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