397 



II. Mittheilungen ans Museen, Instituten etc. 



1. Zoological Society of London. 



March 18 th, 1902. — A report was read, drawn up by Mr. A. Thomson, 

 the Assistant-Superintendent of the Society's Gardens, on the lepidopterous 

 insects exhibeted in the Insect-house during the year 1901, and a series of the 

 specimens reared in it was laid upon the table. — Mr. R. E. Holding exhibe- 

 ted and made remarks upon some malformed antlers an horns of deer, sheep, 

 and cattle. — Dr. H. Gadow, F.R.S., F.Z.S., read a paper "on the Evolution 

 of Horns and Antlers." He stated that three main types could be distingui- 

 shed in the evolution of the ornamental weapons on the heads of Ruminants, 

 and that all these types were referable to an ancient condition in which the 

 beginning weapon, be it one of offence or defence, appeared as a mere exo- 

 stosis with a thickened skin-pad. This stage resembled that of Din-^eeras 

 of the Eocene. Secondly, there was found exostosis of the frontal bone pro- 

 ducing a pedicle, surmounted by a cartilaginous mass of apical growth, 

 which by subsequent basal ossification became an antler. Skin originally 

 unaltered and hairy; this, and the chondrostoma or cartilaginous later 

 osseous growth, was shed periodically and constituted the Cervine type. A 

 side issue of type II. was that of pro-GivafFe-like animals. Cartilaginous 

 growth preponderant, with multiple and broadened bases. Ossification de- 

 layed, but still proceeding from the base, e. g.^ the Samotherimn of the top- 

 most Miocene. A further development of this type (II. a) was shown by the 

 Giraffe, in which the outgrowth proliferated freely and now formed free 

 growths, ossifying independently, of the cranial bones, but ultimately fusing 

 with them. Type III. was a continuation of the main line from IL, repre- 

 sented by the Prongbuck; predominant epidermal growth produced a horn- 

 shoe, which was periodically shed, but had abolished the shedding of the 

 bony core which represented the antler. Type IV., the highest stage, was re- 

 presented by the hollow-horned Ruminants, in which the horn-shoe was now a 

 permanent feature; but it was important to note that these animals still shed 

 the first, or earliest, generation of the horny sheath. Horns and antlers were 

 developed alike with a cartilaginous matrix, with subsequent ossification. 

 These four types were an illustration of onward phyletic evolution, and these 

 stages were still faithfully repeated in the development of the recent species: 

 this was a clear instance where ontogeny was a shortened recapitulation of 

 phylogeny. — Mr. R. Trimen, F.R.S., communicated a paper by Lieut. - 

 Col. J. M. Fawcett, entitled "Notes on the Transformations of some South- 

 African Lepidoptera." This memoir was in continuation of one by the same 

 author, already published in the Societhy's 'Transactions.' It illustrated the 

 earlier stages of 32 species, of which 6 belonged to the Rhopalocera and 

 26 to the Heterocera. As in the previous memoir, the Sphingidae and the 

 several families of the Bombyces predominated in the series illustrated, and 

 many of these were of special interest in connection with what was known 

 of the earlier stages of the same groups of allied species in the Oriental 

 Region. — Mr. R. I. Pocock, F.Z.S., gave an account of a new stridulating- 

 organ discovered in the Scorpions belonging to the African genus Parabuthus. 

 This organ consisted of a granular sharpened or finely ridged area upon the 

 dorsal side of the seventh abdominal somite and of the first and second segments 



