50 



decrease in the quantity of matter published. At the commencement 

 of the session, the Council (always full of hope for the future) deter- 

 mined to issue four parts of the 'Transactions' during the year, and 

 these, as you are aware, have appeared in the time contemplated. 

 More than four parts of the ' Transactions ' the Council do not antici- 

 pate they shall be able to publish annually, but it has been determined 

 that these parts shall appear, if possible, at regular quarterly intervals, 

 viz., on the first of each of the following months, — March, June, Sep- 

 tember, and December. Of course to accomplish this very desirable 

 end, the Society must be furnished with an adequate number of papers 

 worthy of publication, and I have great hope that this simple an- 

 nouncement of the Council's intentions will be sufficient to stimulate 

 the members to the necessary exertions in preparing communications. 

 That such communications may be made known with the least possible 

 delay, an arrangement has been entered into with the Editor of the 

 ' Zoologist,' which will insure their publication, in abstract, in that 

 journal, for the month following that in which the paper was read. 



The record of the loss sustained by the Society, in the death of 

 certain of its members, forms a most melancholy part of my duties of 

 this evening. Besides the decease of our excellent and amiable 

 Honorary President, which has already been much dwelt upon in this 

 room, it is my duty to announce the death of two other of our mem- 

 bers, viz., H. F. Farr, Esq., a most zealous entomologist, who 

 I learn died, in March last, of laryngial consumption, at Torquay, 

 in his 28th year. Mr. Farr joined our Society in 1849, and is well- 

 known to many of our members, whose collections have been en- 

 riched by his liberal donations of rare insects which he had the good 

 fortune to capture. The third death I have to record is that of 

 Captain Du Cane, a comparatively old member of the Society, 

 he having been elected in 1839. Shortly before his decease, which 

 took place last month, he published an interesting paper on the trans- 

 formation of the Crustacea. 



I am happy to state that our number lias decreased but by one, 

 through resignation, and that, on the other hand, as many as eight 

 new members and thirteen subscribers have joined the Society during 

 the past year. The pi'incipal communications during the same 

 period have been by Mr. S. S. Saunders, on Strepsiptera and new 

 aculeate Hymenoptera ; by Mr. W, W. Saunders, on Australian Lon- 

 gicorn Beetles ; by Mr. Stainton, on Micropteryx ; and by Mr. 

 Douglas, on the species of Gelechia. These papers have already 

 appeared in our ' Transactions ; ' those which remain unpublished are 



