NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OK GLASGOW. Ixvii 



Society of Glasgow. On 29th December, 1868, he was admitted a 

 member of the^ Natural History Society of Glasgow, and was, in 

 September, 1869, elected a Member of Council. Two years later, 

 on the resignation by Mr. Robert Gray of the office of Secretary, 

 Mr Mason was appointed his successor, and continued to hold 

 that office for upwards of eleven years. 



.f ?r Q^ ^^l' ?'7u' P''""'^ °^ °^^^' *^^ P^speHty and influence 

 of the Society had been greatly extended ; and the highest tribute 

 that can be paid to the official work of Mr. Mason is the acknow- 

 ledgment that he succeeded in maintaining the Society in the 

 position to which Mr. Gray's exertions had been mainly instru- 

 mental in raising it. The records of the Society were compiled 

 with an accuracy of detail which could only be imparted to them 

 by a naturalist of wide general knowledge and experience, while 

 the scrupulous care bestowed on all departments of his official 

 work showed how faithfully he endeavoured to serve the Society 

 In Septembeis 1880, Mr. John M. Campbell was appointed Co^ 

 Secretary with Mr. Mason. At the close of Session 1881-82 Mr 

 Mason retired from office, and was afterwards presented by the 

 members with a handsome cabinet, in token of their personal 

 regard for him and high appreciation of his services. In Septem- 

 ber 1882 he was elected a Vice-President. He was admitted a 

 I^ellow of the Linnean Society in March, 1881. Owing to increas- 

 mg feebleness, due to his advanced age, Mr. Mason had ceased for 

 several years to take any active part in the affairs of the various 

 local scientific societies with which he was connected. He died 

 on 2Sth ulto., while in his 81s t year, a nd is survived by an only son. 



Mr. James J. F. X. King, F.E.S., exhibited a fine series of 

 microscopical specimens illustrating the life-history of the 

 Messian Fly {Cecidomyia destructor. Say) from the egg to the 

 adult condition. He stated that until 1886 the insect was un- 



^.Z"" W T""^""^' ^''^ '^''""^ *^^* y«^r it appeared in 



Hertfordshire. In 1887 it had extended over several of the 

 i-nghsh counties, and the agricultural districts of Aberdeenshire 

 Since then it has continued to spread over the country, but does 

 not seem to have yet been observed in Ireland. Mr. King de- 

 scribed the position in which the eggs of the insect are deposited 

 on the growing stems of cereals, as well as the destructive 

 operations of the larvae, which so weakens the stem at the point 

 of attack as to cause them to bend downwards. Specimens were 

 also exhibited of four minute species of Hymenoptera which are 

 parasitic on the Hessian Fly. Of these Platygaster minutus, L., 

 Meristis znte7-medius, Lindeman, .and Semiotellus nigripes 

 Lindeman, have been found in Russia, and Meristcs desTructor, 

 fu!^^' '^ .-^"l^^^^^- Mr. King remarked that as the parasites 

 observed in Britain are the same as those found in Russia, the 

 Hessian Fly would seem to have come to us from that country 



