( xi ) 



growers, and could be obtained by the public. Mr. Trevelyan : The 

 Agricultural Department receive from time to time reports from the United 

 States of America and elsewhere containing information on insects injurious 

 to crops, but there are not any reports prepared by the Department itself 

 dealing especially with the subject. I have given instructions that the 

 reports I have mentioned should be looked carefully through, and if it 

 appears that we can extract from them papers likely to be of use which 

 could be laid in a small volume before Parliament, this shall be done." 



Mr. E. P. Collett exhibited an oak-twig found last January at Hastings, 

 on which were many hard gall-like swellings. 



Mr. E. A. Fitch did not think the gall-like growths were due to insect- 

 attack, but rather to what is popularly known as canker ; possibly such 

 growths might be caused by the presence of Lachnus longijics or Stomaphis 

 quercus, which he had found on oak-twigs at Maldou in winter, but he had 

 not noticed any growths, similar to those now exhibited, in the locality 

 where the Aphides occurred. 



Mr. H. Goss called attention to the important collection of fossil 

 insects obtained during the past five years by M. Chas. Brongniart, of 

 Paris, from the carboniferous strata of Commentry (AUier), France, and read 

 a short analysis of several recent papers by M. Brongniart on the subject 

 of these fossil insects, copies of which papers were presented to the Society 

 from the author. Mr. Goss stated that at the date of his paper on " The 

 Insecta of the Palaeozoic Period,'" March, 1879, only 103 fossil insects 

 from the carboniferous rocks of the whole world were known ; whereas at 

 the present time M. Chas. Bi-ongniart has in his possession 1400 specimens 

 from Commentry alone, including some 40 types. The Hemiptera are 

 represented by forms allied to the genera Fidgora, Lystra, and Memhracis ; 

 the Neuroptera by species approaching Corydalis, ChauUodes, and Hemero- 

 biiis ; the Pseudo-Neuroptera by types related to Ephemera and Perla ; and 

 the Orthoptera by Blattida and PliasmidcB. The 1400 fossils also include 

 a number of comprehensive forms combining characteristics of the Neuroptera 

 and Orthoptera, representing a transitional type, connecting one order 

 with another, which has been long extinct. The following is a list of the 

 papers presented by M. Brongniart to the Society : — 



1. Dec. 11, 1882. — Extract from the Comptes Rendus of the French 

 Academy of Science, containing a description of Titanophasnia FayoU, a 

 gigantic orthopteron allied to the Phasmidce. 



3. Pec. 18, 1882.— Bulletin de la Soc. Geologique de France, con- 

 taining another description of TUanophasma Fayoli, and some general 

 observations on the Insect Fauna of the Carboniferous Period. 



3. Jan. 24, 1883.— Extract from the Bull. Ent. Soc. de France, in 

 which two other extinct Phasmidw are referred to, viz., Protophasuia 

 Dumam and P. Woodwardii. 



