CORRESPONDENCE REPORTS. l89 



BoMBYX Mori. — In examining some larvae of Bomhyx Mori some 

 time ago I noticed a peculiarity in one of them so unusual that I lost 

 no time in preparing it for the microscope. The peculiarity consisted 

 in its having a double row of hooklets on its pro legs, the second row 

 being about half-way up the pro leg, where it appeared they could 

 be of but little use to the creature. This abnormal development (for 

 I can regai-d it as nothing else) applied to all the pro legs, and the 

 hooklets in each row were equally well formed. I have examined 

 many larva3 of various kinds, but do not recollect seeing one with this 

 feature before, and should like to know whether any of the readers of 

 the " Midland Naturalist" have met with a similar development. — M. 

 Neville, Handsworth. 



'Mr. Neville sent with his note a beautiful drawing showing the 

 abnormal hooklets in situ, which we regret we are unable to reproduce 

 along with his note. — Eds. M. N.] 



Ilcprts of <iontties. 



BIKMINGHAM N.\TUEAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.— 

 Biological Section. June 13th. Mr. .J. E. Bagnall exhibited £sca?;o)i7n rM6>*«, 

 a native of South .\merica, peculiar for its glanclular leaves, stems, and flowers, 

 with microscopical preparations of the same, showing epidermis of leaves, 

 sections of ovary and ovules ; Aquilegia vulyarix, Columbine, from woods near 

 Middleton ; also Bartramia Oederi, Encalypta piocera, and other mosses from 

 the Engadiue. Mr. A. \V. Wills exhibited Diatomaceae from Chester town 

 water; ditto, including AsteriuneUa fortnvsK, Cyclotella spV, from Leicester 

 waterworks filter beds ; also Vaucheria. showing curious root growth. He pre- 

 sented six slides of .\lg<E to the Society's cabinet. — Geological Section. June 

 27th. The folowiug exhibits were made :— Mr. Bailey, two indented pebbles, 

 from the Perry trial sinking, 3-20 feet below the surface ; Mr. W. J. Harrison, a 

 specimen of quartz felsite, from Nuneaton, and Monograpsus Salweyi, from 

 Walsall; and Mr. W. B. Grove, Craterium )ninutii)ii, one of the Myxomycetes, 

 from a straw heap at Water Ortoii. Professor C. Lapworth, F.G.S., then delivered 

 a very interesting lecture on "The Discovery of Cambrian Kocks in the 

 Midlands." He first referred to the Permian breccias of the Clent Hills, North- 

 field, &c., and showed that the theory of Professor Fvamsay, who ascribed their 

 origin to glacial action, was probably en-oneous, and that these beds, together 

 with the breccias and conglomerates of the Trias, were most likely debris formed 

 from aucient rocks now in great part below the surface. The lecturer said that 

 traces of these old cliffs still remain ; as, for instance, at the Lickey Hills, 

 Nuneaton, the Wrekin, &c. The quartzite of the Lickey has generally been 

 described as altered Llandovery sandstone, but is now proved to be of Cambrian 

 age with fossiliferous Llandovery rocks resting inicomformably on its flanks. 

 But what is still more remarkable is, thiit these quartzites in turn rest uucou- 

 formably on beds of .\rch8ean or pre-Cambrian age. .\t Hartshill, near Nuneaton, 

 rt large bed of quartzite mapped by the survey as millstone gi-it is now proved to 

 be Cambrian, and it is overlaid Ijy shales, formerly marked as part of the coal 

 measures, but which are found to contain characteristic Cambrian fossils, such 

 as Aguofitus, Obvlella, LingulcUa, &c. Till lately the Birmingham district was 

 thought to have been accurately describediand mapped by the Geological Survey, 

 but Professor Lapworth has during the past few mouths led the van in a 

 remarkable series of discoveries. Several local geologists have ably followed 

 his lead, and researches are still being carried on which will make considei-able 

 differences in the geological maps of this neighbourhood. The lecture was illus- 

 trated by many specimens, diagrams, &c., and was followed by a brief discussion. 



