( lvi ) 



angularly to support the special angular group of spines that 

 a normal joint carries. 



The abnormal fifth joint is unfortunately broken, the 

 extremity carrying claws, if it did so, being lost. Its form 

 and length seem nevertheless to be much like those of a 

 normal fifth joint, with the same exception as occurred in 

 the fourth joint that carries it, namely, that it is, if one may 

 so express it, entirely dorsal and without any spines, or ventral 

 bristles. This description is so far incorrect that the normal 

 joints have a few spinous hairs dorsally at the distal margins, 

 but they are sufficiently sparse to let one suppose that a special 

 dorsal hypertrophy would thrust them aside and leave a 

 smooth median surface, and when I describe these extra joints 

 as being entirely dorsal, I wish to suggest that it is only such 

 a medio-dorsal portion of a normal tarsus that has been here 

 reduplicated to form them. 



Cassididae preserving their brilliancy. Mr. E. E. 



Green exhibited various species of Cassididae, preserved in 

 2 per cent, formalin, displaying their natural metallic colours 

 which are lost on desiccation. 



Eecovery op a butterfly that had been stunned for 



NEARLY THREE DAYS BY A FALL.— Prof. PoULTON exhibited 



a living male Celastrina argiolus, L., which he had found, 

 on April 27, lying with outspread wings on a cement path at 

 St. Helens, Isle of Wight. The right hindwing had been dis- 

 placed so as to overlap, instead of being overlapped by, the 

 forewing, but there was no other visible injury. The wings, 

 although of full size, were soft, and, on the left side, some- 

 what crumpled. The insect, placed under a tumbler on the 

 study table, remained motionless on April 27, 28 and 29, but 

 on the morning of April 30 was seen to have entirely recovered. 

 Its wings had regained the normal overlap, although those of 

 the left side had, of course, hardened in their crumpled condi- 

 tion. It seemed clear that the recently emerged butterfly had 

 fallen from the ivy which grew up the side of the house close 

 to the spot, and that the wings had been too limp to prevent a 

 serious fall. The insect, kept in a glass-topped box with ivy 

 leaves damped nearly every day, was alive on the afternoon 

 of May 7, but found to be dead on the following morning 



