.JOL'llXAl, OF I'ROCKKDINGS. 



Ixi 



resumed, Mr. Sells suggesting that it was not difficult to account 

 for the operation of the male semen upon the eggs, because they 

 were at first of a soft and porous texture, although they speedily 

 hardened upon exposure to the atmospheric air ; he also mentioned 

 a curious fact noticed by the celebrated John Hunter, who found 

 that, by applying male semen taken from the spermatheca of im- 

 pregnated females to eggs deposited by virgin females, the latter be- 

 came fertile. The fact, however, that the eggs of some species of 

 moths are ejected from the body with great force, and in rapid suc- 

 cession, of a hard consistence (as in the Hepialida), was mentioned 

 as being opposed to Mr. Sells's former observations. 



Dr. Robert Grant gave an account of the nature of the generative 

 organs of insects, showing, from the researches of Lyonnet, Strauss 

 Durckheim, L. Dufour, and others, that the semen of the male in- 

 sect is received by the female in a sac or receptacle, over the neck 

 of which the eggs pass in their way from the ovaries to the oviduct. 



Mr. Shuckard stated that he had reared a Plusia gamma in his 

 breeding-cage, which, without any intercourse with the male, had 

 produced eggs, which had given birth to larvae, which, however, did 

 not live to attain the imago state. 



Mr. Pickering mentioned some circumstances connected with Ha- 

 lictus, a genus of bees, which appeared to prove (from the existence 

 of females only in the spring months,) that a single impregnation 

 suffices for two generations, the first of which consists only of females ; 

 promising to lay the subject before the Society in a more detailed 

 form when he had obtained further information upon the subject. 



Mr. Sells requested information relative to the nature of the di- 

 gestive organization in those species of moths which are destitute 

 of any organs, in the imago state, for taking nourishment, and pro- 

 posed the same as an interesting subject for inquiry. 



June 22nd, 1S35. 



Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess or Kent and the Princes^ 

 Victoria having been graciously pleased to declare themselves the 

 Patronesses of the Society, a Deputation, consisting of the Honorary 

 President (the Rev. W. Kirby), the President (the Rev. F. W. Hope), 

 two of the Vice-Presidents (Col. Sykes and Mr. Stephens), the Se- 

 cretary (J. O. Westwood), and William Ogilby, Esq., waited upon 

 Their Royal Highnesses by appointment this day at Kensington 

 Palace, for the purpose of receiving Their Royal Highnesses' signa- 

 ture declaratory of their royal pleasure ; when Their Royal 



VOL. I. PART III. U 



