SOCIETIES. 



21 



final ecclysis the wings of the imago were fully expanded, and assumed 

 their natural position before the insect left the sac, or pupai'ium, in 

 which the resting stage had been passed. Mr. McLachlan and others 

 continued the discussion. Mr. Jiethune-Baker exhibited a yellow 

 spider from Orotava, which was of the exact colour of the flowers that 

 it usually rested upon, and which had been observed to catch Vanessa^ 

 which settled on these flowers. Mr. Barrett said he had noticed a 

 spider with the same habit on the ox-eye daisy in Surrey. Mr. 

 Bethune-Baker also exhibited a very curious dark variety oi Arctia caia, 

 bred by Mr. Moore. Professor Meldola stated that it had been of late 

 found difficult to store bristles in the City owing to the ravages of a 

 moth, of which he exhibited living specimens of the larvte and pupa?. 

 Mr. Barrett said that the moth was Tinea bisclHeUa. Mr. Blaudford 

 stated that the bisulphide of carbon treatment might be found to be of 

 advantage if it were practicable, but more would have to be ascertained 

 with regard to the extent and character of the ravages before anything 

 could be determined upon. Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Green, and others 

 took part in the discussion which followed. Mr. Blandford called 

 attention to the use of formalin as a preventive of mould, and said 

 that it would probably be found of use in insect collections ; an object 

 once sprayed with this substance never became mouldy afterwards. 

 Professor Meldola said that formalin was another name for a solution 

 of formic aldehyde : it is now much used in the colour industry, and 

 is, therefore, produced on a large scale. Mr. Newstead communicated 

 a paper entitled " New Coccidje collected by the Eev. A. E. Eaton in 

 Algeria." 



December 2iid. — Dr. David Sharp, M.A., F.E.S., Vice-President, in 

 the chair. Dr. Sharp exhibited the series of Longicorn Coleoptera of 

 the genus Plagithmysus from the Hawaiian Islands, of which a j)re- 

 liminary account had recently been given by him elsewhere. He said 

 that these examples were the result of Mr. Perkins' work for the 

 Sandwich Island Committee, and afforded a fair sample of his success 

 in the other orders, which would be found to have completely revolu- 

 tionised our knowledge of the entomological fauna of these islands. 

 He stated that Mr. Meyrick had recently informed him that the 

 GeometridfTo would be increased from six species to forty-four, and 

 that the genus Plagithniijsiis showed an almost equal increase ; and 

 that the Avorking out of the specimens was very diflicult, owing to 

 the variability of the species and to their being closely allied. Mr. 

 Malcolm Burr exhibited a specimen of a cockroach, Pycnoselus indicus, 

 Fabr., taken in a house at Bognor, Sussex. He said this was the first 

 record of the occurrence of the species in England. According to 

 De Saussure, it was distributed throughout India, Ceylon, Mexico, 

 and the United States. Mr. P. Crowley exhibited a remarkable 

 variety of Abra.ms (/rossnlanata taken in a garden at Croydon last 

 summer. Mr. Tutt exhibited some Micro-Lepidoptera from the Dau- 

 phine Alps. Several specimens of Psecadia pusiella, Rom., showing 

 considerable difference in the width of the bhick zigzag band crossing 

 the centre of the fore wings longitudinally. The species was taken at 

 La Grave, in a gully at the back of the village. A large number of 

 specimens were secured, chiefly resting on the trunks and branches of 

 two or three ash and willow trees growing on the bank at the side of 



