128 



Mr. J. E. Gray remarked that this identity of appearance in some species was not 

 confined to insects, for among the Vertehrata, the musk deer was found from the cen- 

 tre of Siberia to the south of the Himalayas, and no difference was perceptible. 



Mr. Curtis remarked that he had once seen a collection of insects from Calcutta, 

 which had generally a very European appearance ; and in another collection from Van 

 Diemen's Land, they were so like European forms, that they might be associated there- 

 with generically if not specifically. 



The President remarked that in looking at some insects from Shanghae, he had 

 been struck with the remarkable resemblance, in several instances, not only to Euro- 

 pean, but even to English species. 



Mr. Curtis exhibited an exotic species of Cicada, found alive on the 11th of Au- 

 gust last by Mr. R. Gordon, in one of the hot-houses in the Horticultural Society's 

 Garden at Chiswick, into which it had probably been brought with some Orchidaceae 

 from Central America. He also exhibited a curious nest of eggs of a spider (Epeira 

 zebrataP), which he found at Nice last spring. It was of a dirty white colour, of a 

 spherical shape, and about an inch in diameter; M. Guerin had informed him that 

 these nests were sometimes thrice as large. 



Alluding to the experiment of Sir James Ross, mentioned at the last meeting, Mr. 

 Curtis read the following note from the ' Appendix ' to Sir J. Ross's Voyage, in 18:30, 

 transcribed by him from Sir James's MSS. — " About thirty of the caterpillars were 

 put into a box in the middle of September, and after being exposed to the severe win- 

 ter temperature of the next three months, they were brought into a warm cabin, where, 

 in less than two hours, every one of them returned to life, and continued for a whole 

 day walking about. They were again exposed to the air at a temperature of about 40° 

 below zero, and became immediately hard frozen ; in this state they remained a week, 

 and on being brought again into the cabin, only twenty-three came to life. These 

 were at the end of four hours put out once more into the air, and again frozen ; after 

 another week they were brought in, when only eleven were restored to life. A fourth 

 time they were exposed to the winter temperature, and only two returned to life on be- 

 ing again brought into the cabin. These two survived the winter, and in May an im- 

 perfect Laria (Rossii) was produced from one, and six flies from the other ; both of them 

 formed cocoons, but that which produced the flies was not so perfect as the other." 



Referring to the exhibition at the meeting of this Society on the 4th of Novem- 

 ber, 1850, by Mr. Evans, of some Culicidee received from the Great Slave Lake, Mr. C. 

 said he had no doubt they were the C. Caspius of Pallas, of which insect Sir James 

 Ross remarked that " It first appeared about the 10th of July, on the 15th it became 

 very numerous, and on the 22nd so exceedingly troublesome as to prevent the neces- 

 sary duties of the ship. They swarmed in perfect clouds over the marshes, and their 

 larvae constitute the principal food of the trout that inhabit the lakes. On the 13th of 

 August they came out again after the rain, but were no longer very troublesome, being 

 apparently nipped by the frost at night." Mr. Curtis added that Sir James told him 

 the crew were obliged to wear nets over their faces while fishing. 



The Chironomus and Tipula exhibited by Mr. White at the last meeting, Mr. Cur- 

 tis said were described by him in the 'Appendix' to Sir J. Ross's Voyage already men- 

 tioned, the former being the C. borealis, Curtis, the latter the Tipula arctica, Curtis. 

 It was a curious fact, that all the Culicidae received from the Arctic regions were 

 females. 



