251 



an interesting example of Protective Mimicry discovered by Mr. W. L. Scla- 

 ter in British Guiana. This was an immature form of an unknown species 

 of Homopterous insect of the family Membracidae, which mimics the Cooshie 

 Ant [Oecodoma cephalotes) . — P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



2. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



May 27th, 1S91. — 1) Geological. — 2) Remarks on Post-Tertiary 

 Pkascolomyidae. By C. W. De Vis, M. A., Corr. Mem. In this paper the 

 author adduces weighty evidence, based on the phascolomine peculiarities of 

 their respective contents, in favour of the conclusion that the ossiferous de- 

 posits of the Darling Downs and of the Wellington Caves are not upon the 

 same palaeontological horizon, the cave wombats, Phascolomys latifrons , P. 

 KreJ'tii, and P. curvirostris, not having come into existence when the Queens- 

 land breccias and Tertiaries — characterised by the presence of P. parvus and 

 P. angustidens , n. sp. (herein described), — were laid down; and secondly 

 that no living species of wombat has come down to us from the Age of the 

 Condamine beds. — 3) Description of a new Marine Shell. By C. Hedley, 

 F.L.S., and C. T. Musson, F.L.S. The new species, described as Euli- 

 mella monili/orme , flourishes in the brackish water of the lagoon at Manly, 

 near Sydney. — Mr. Hedley read a short note descriptive of the ova of a 

 common Sydney land mollusc , Helicarion robustus , Gould , which are some- 

 what different from those of other pulmonate molluscs occurring in the neigh- 

 bourhood, being spirally ribbed. — Mr. A. Sidney Oil iff exhibited 1) two 

 species of a small fly {Diplosis spp.) , recently bred at the Department of 

 Agriculture by Dr. Cobb and himself from larvae found feeding on rust 

 Puccinia) on peach and sunflowers; 2) a drawing of a larva of one of these 

 flies, illustrating the anatomy of the animal, and exhibiting the embryo and 

 larva of an internal parasite, apparently belonging to the Hymenoptera; 

 and 3) specimens of a dipteron (Tachina sp.), a parasite of the plague locust, 

 Pachytylus australis, Br., which is allied to the recently-discovered Musicera 

 pachytyli, Sk. — Mr. Henry Deane exhibited a fine specimen of Ophideres 

 sahninia, Cr., from Casino, a moth which enlarges, by means of its auger- 

 like proboscis the holes made by fruit-flies, etc., in the rind of oranges and 

 bananas. — Mr. Deane also stated that last month, while travelling by 

 night through the Big Scrub in the Richmond River District , his interest 

 was aroused by the remarkable effect produced by luminous insects which 

 abounded by the roadside. Specimens were secured and sent off in the hope 

 that they would arrive in time to be exhibited at last month's meeting, but 

 they came a day too late , and in the meanwhile have died. From their 

 general resemblance to the larvae of Ceroplatus mastersi, Sk., which are also 

 phosphorescent, Mr. Fletcher, who had seen the specimens forwarded, was 

 of the opinion that these were very probably also dipterous larvae. — Mr. 

 David made some remarks on certain luminous organisms whicM he had 

 observed in old coal mine workings in Illawarra, the identification of which 

 it was hoped would not long be postponed. 



