Hohnesdale Natural History Club. 



Mr. Crosfield exhibited one of the white martins alluded to in his paper, 

 and also other specimens of birds and eggs. 



Mr. Tyndall presented a table of meteorological observations for the year 

 1878, made at Oxford Eoad, EedhiU, a height of 300 feet above the sea :— 



31-71 



195 



Evening Meetino, Feb. \Wi, 1879. Mr. Turner exhibited a remarkably 

 fine specimen of the fossil crushing teeth of Ptyehodus decurrens, a shark 

 nearly resembling the existing species known as the Port Jackson shark. 

 The specimen was found at Betchworth. In the modern species the whole 

 roof of the mouth and part of the throat are paved with stone-like teeth, 

 adapted for crushing shell-fish. 



The President (Mr. Sydney Webb) read the following paper on "The 

 Phenomena connected with the Emergence of Lepidoptera from the 

 Chrysalis : " 



Every insect, whether it be a fly, beetle, bee, butterfly, bug of 

 either the water or land, grasshopper, froghopper, gnat, or what not, in 

 passing through its short life occupies in succession one of four conditions ; 

 these are the &g^, caterpillar or larva, chrysalis or pupa, imago or perfect 

 insect ; and whether we consider it in the first or last stage we shall find 

 in different species diversity of structure and habit alike instructive and 

 interesting. For instance, the egg — its mode of deposition how varied, its 

 external covering how exquisite in its microscopic markings and sculpturinga, 

 the texture of the shells and the ways of the inmates, for some hybemate 

 perfectly developed, whilst others remain unchanged for many months. 

 Then the caterpillar, grub, or larva, -with an invariable body of 12 segments, 

 however diverse in form or eccentric in habit, turning to the pupa or 

 chrysalis popularly considered as a fit emblem of life in death — no new 

 figure, for it has been quoted alike by authors and poets, pagan, Hebrew 

 and Christian, for the last 3000 years, as a familiar example of repose 

 before the final change into a more glorified and perfected condition. I 



