( xvii ) 



should be very t^hd if anyone present could suggest an explanation 

 of any such function, or throw some light upon the question of 

 their purpose. Although the whole of the viscera and other fatty 

 portions of the caterpillar had been squeezed out, these organs 

 were perfectly retained, apparently in their proper form, and it 

 was quite certain that they must fulfil some purpose. 



In reply to some observations from Prof. Meldola, Mr. White 

 said he had not found any similar organs in any other species, 

 though he had looked well for them ; and in reply to Mr. J. Jenner 

 Weir, who suggested that they might act as suckers, he stated 

 that the objection to that explanation was that the skin covering 

 them was perfectly tight. There were in some instances pairs of 

 minute holes which might communicate with the atmosphere, and 

 probably did, but otherwise air was closed from them. There 

 appeared to be a motile closing of the arrangement of tentacles 

 like the clasping together of fingers, but this could not apply to 

 the open continuation of the serrated edge of tentacles above this 

 seam of the lip, which is not unlike the labellum of some orchid. 



Mr. S. Edwards exhibited an, apparently, unknown exotic 

 spider, found in his orchid-house at Blackheath. 



Mr. H. Goss exhibited two remarkable varieties of the male of 

 Argijnnis i^cq^hia, taken in Sussex and Hampshire respectively. 



Papers read. 



Mr. A. G. Butler communicated a paper entitled "Descriptions 

 and remarks upon five new Noctuid Moths from Japan." 



The Rev. W. W. Fowler read a paper " On new genera and 

 species of Langiiriid(B" chiefly from specimens in the British 

 Museum, the Cambridge Museum, Mr. Lewis's Ceylon collection, 

 and the collection of the Rev. H. S. Gorham. In alluding to a 

 species described in this paper, Mr. Champion remarked that he 

 had taken the elongate form, and also the broader form, on trees as 

 well as on low herbage, in Central America. Dr. Sharp remarked 

 that Mr. Lewis's experience of the habits of the species in Cevlon 

 appeared to have been different. 



Dr. Sharp read a paper " On some proposed transfers of generic 

 names." This paper called attention to a practice advocated by 

 Mons. Des Gozis, which was apparently extending on the Con- 

 tinent, of transfering the names of some of the commonest genera 

 to other genera. The extreme confusion caused by the practice 



