liv 
the contrary, enriched as usual by numerous contributions, principally 
‘from Members of our Society. These comprise Mr. Smith’s descrip- 
tions of Hymenopterous insects collected by Mr. Wallace in New 
Guinea, Sumatra, Sula, Gilolo and Salwatty; Mr. Walker’s descrip- 
tions of Diptera from New Guinea, Salwatty and other Islands of the 
Eastern Archipelago ; Mr. Hewitson’s list of the Diurnal Lepidoptera 
collected by Mr. Wallace in the same Archipelago; Mr. Butler’s list 
of Diurnal Lepidoptera collected by Mr. Whitely in North Japan; 
and Mr. Pascoe’s memoir on the Australian Longicorns. Mr. Black- 
wall also communicates a short paper on the means by which insects 
move on dry, polished, vertical surfaces, and brings forward additional 
-arguments in favour of his opinion that this is effected, not by the 
creation of a vacuum, but by means of an adhesive fluid emitted from 
the under surface of the feet. Dr. Kirk has a paper on the Tsetse; 
and Mr. Haliday a short notice of Dicellura, a remarkable genus 
allied to Prof. Westwood’s curious Campodea. 
In the ‘Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science’ the late 
Mr. R. Beck, whose death is deplored by all lovers of Science, 
announced that he had observed a case of agamic reproduction, 
extending over three generations, in an Acarus belonging apparently 
to the genus Cheyletus. This is the first timethat agamogenesis 
‘has been observed in the Arachnida. Mr. Tuffen West has, in the 
same excellent periodical, two short notices, one on the egg of Scato- 
phaga, and the other on the cast-skin of an Ephemeron. ‘They are 
illustrated by one of those beautiful plates for which Mr. West is so 
justly celebrated. 
Mr. A. 8. Packard has communicated to the Boston Natural His- 
tory Society an interesting memoir “On the Development and 
Position of the Hymenoptera.” His observations were made on a 
species of Bombus, and he shows that there are three changes “ of 
skin during the so-called pupa state, in distinction from the larva 
and imago state, and it is highly probable that there are more. 
During the larval condition it would be safe to say that there are 
four distinct moultings. . . . .. The genus Bombus, therefore, 
may be considered to undergo a series of at least ten moultings of 
the skin, and we are inclined to think further observations will tend 
to increase the number.” Mr. Packard’s observations certainly show 
that the transitions from the larva to the pupa on the one hand, 
