SOCIETIES. 331 



ago in the Isle of Sheppey, but described only quite recently by 

 M. Reyfrom specimens found at Calais and Dieppe. (2) Limnius 

 rivularls, Kosenh., found by the late Dr. J. A. Power at Woking ; 

 the species, though not uncommon in Southern Europe, had not, 

 he believed, been previously found farther north than Central 

 France. (3) Tropiphoi'us obtusus, Bonsd., taken by himself on 

 the banks of the Water of Cairn, Dumfriesshire ; he had consi- 

 dered previously that this might be the male of T. mercurialis, but 

 M. Fauvel, who was studying the European species of the genus, 

 informed him that this was not the case. Dr. Sharp also 

 exhibited a GoUathus recently described by Dr. O. Nickerl as a 

 new species under the name of GoUathus atlas, and remarked 

 that the species existed in several collections, and had been 

 supposed to be possibly a hybrid between G. regius and G. cacicus* 

 as its characters appeared to be exactly intermediate. He also 

 exhibited a living example of the Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa 

 vulgaris, from Southampton ; between the spines of its hind legs 

 were a number of living Acaridse placed in a symmetrical manner 

 so as to appear as if they formed a portion of the structure of the 

 limb. Mr. Eland Shaw exhibited two species of Orthoptera, 

 which had been unusually abundant this year, viz. Nemohius 

 sylvestris, from the New Forest, and Tettix suhulatus, from Char- 

 mouth, Dorset. Mr. E. B. Poulton exhibited the cocoons of 

 three species of Lepidoptera, in which the colour of the silk had 

 been controlled by the use of appropriate colours in the larval 

 environment at the time of spinning up. Mr. Poulton said this 

 colour susceptibility had been previously proved by him in 1886 

 in the case of Saturnia carpini, and the experiments on the sub- 

 ject had been described in the Proc. Royal Society, 1887. It 

 appeared from these experiments that the cocoons were dark 

 brown when the larvae had been placed in a black bag ; white 

 when they had been freely exposed to light with white surfaces in 

 the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Poulton stated that two 

 other species subjected to experiment during the past season 

 afforded confirmatory results. Thus the mature larvae of Erio- 

 gaster lanestris had been exposed to wiiite surroundings by the 

 Rev. W. J. H. Newman, and cream-coloured cocoons were pro- 

 duced in all cases ; whilst two or three hundred larvae from the 

 same company spun the ordinary dark brown cocoons among the 

 leaves of the food-plant. In the latter case the green surround- 



