6oS 



NATURE 



[June 29, 191 1 



Somali rhinoci-ros, a race for wliich the author adopted the 

 name Rhinoceros bicornis somalicus, Potocki. A klip- 

 springcr skull from north<?rn Nigeria, characterised by its 

 great width and the peculiar form of the lacrymal bone, 

 was described as the type of a new race, Oreotragus 

 saltator porteusi. Finally, a gazelle from Algeria was re- 

 ferred to a new species, Gazella hayi, agreeing approxi- 

 mately in size with G. dorcas, but distinguished by the 

 much straighter and non-lyrate horns, each of which carried 

 only about a dozen r'ings. The face-markings were 

 approximate to those of G. cuvieri. — C. E. Hellmayr : A 

 contribution to the ornithology of western Colombia. 

 This memoir was based on a collection made by Mr. M. G. 

 Palmer in 1908 and 1909, which, though numbering hardly 

 700 specimens, was of considerable interest and contained 

 many rare species, and also furnished information of 

 importance to students of zoogeographical problems. — 

 Angel Cabrera : Subspecies of the Spanish ibex. The 

 author dealt with the geographical distribution of, and the 

 differences between, the various races, and described a now 

 subspecies from the Sierra de Credos, the type-specimen 

 of which was in the Madrid Museum. 



Linnean Society, June ic. — Or. A H. Kentllf. F. K.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Miss 11. M. Cunning^ton : 

 The anatomy of Enhalus acoroidcs, Rich. — Prof. Imms : 

 The life-history of Croce filiformis, VVestw. — Papers on 

 insect collections from the islands of the Indian Ocean, 

 communicated by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner. Eight papers 

 were brought forward, four dealing with various groups 

 of Hymenoptera, one with Lepidoptera, and three with 

 Diptera. The first was by Prof. J. J. Kieffer, on para- 

 sitic Hymenoptera of the family Cynipida;, or gall-wasps. 

 This family appears to be poorly represented in the 

 Seychelles ; only eight species (all new) were found, none 

 belonging to the gall-forming section of the family, but all 

 to the zoophagous sections ; their size as compared with 

 that of many zoophagous Cynipidie in other parts of the 

 world is very small. The second paper was by the same 

 author, dealing with the group of small and minute para- 

 sitic Hymenoptera known as Proctotrupoidea. A rich 

 material of these was obtained, representing seven of the 

 families into which the super-family Proctotrupoidea is 

 divided, and consisting of sixty-six species, all new to 

 science. These insects are very incompletely known, and 

 several of the genera enumerated in the paper are also 

 new. The third paper was on the bees obtained by the 

 expedition to the Seychelles and Aldabra in 1908-9, by 

 Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, of the University of Colorado. 

 It adds considerably to the previously known bee fauna of 

 these islands, fifteen species being enumerated, eight of 

 which are new to science. The author shows that the bees 

 of the Seychelles consist of (i) an endemic element, com- 

 posed partly of species without close allies elsewhere, and 

 partly of species closely allied to forms found in other 

 parts of the world, and (ii) certain widely spread species, 

 perhaps introduced by man. The Aldabra bee fauna also 

 contains an endemic element, as well as a single Mada- 

 gascar species. This paper was followed by that of Mr. 

 G. Meade-Waldo on the wasps (Diploptera) obtained by 

 the expedition ; it enumerates five kinds, but adds no 

 species to the previous lists. Mr. J. C. F. Fryer's paper 

 deals with all the Lepidoptera obtained by the expedition 

 of 1908-9, excepting the plume-moths and the Tortrices 

 and Tineina, which were worked out some time ago by 

 Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher and Mr. Meyrick respectively. 

 Almost all the material from .Aldabra, and some of that 

 from the Seychelles, was collected by the author himself. 

 The total number of Lepidoptera known from the 

 Seychelles (including those dealt with previously bv Mr. 

 Fletcher and Mr. Meyrick) is now 240, of v^'hich more than 

 120 are peculiar to the islands. Mr. Fryer's own paper 

 deals with 123 species, of which thirty are'new. He states 

 that these thirty are for the most part very distinct and 

 well separated from their allies, while the non-peculiar 

 species are mostly widely distributed, with a slight pre- 

 ponderance of African forms. With regard to Aldabra, 

 sixty-six species are known from there, seven being, so far 

 as is known, peculiar, while the rest all belong to .African 

 or Madagascar forms. The next two papers were by Mr. 

 J. E. Collin, on two families of small and obscure flies, 

 the Borboridze and Phoridae. All the material of these 

 NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



families is from the Seychelles Islands proper. There are 

 nine species of Borborida;, one of which is new, while the 

 others are apparently of very wide distribution, some being 

 identical with European and even with British species, 

 while one is known from the East Indies, from .Africa, and 

 from South .America. Of the Phoridaj there are twenty 

 species, fourteen of which have not previously be«;n 

 described. The last paper was by Mr. F. V. Theobald, 

 on the mosquitoes obtained by the expedition. Th<re an: 

 nine kinds of Culicid^e known from the islands, five of 

 them being new to science. One of these new forms was 

 found by .Mr. Fryer in .Aldabra, and is named after him 

 Culicelsa fryeri ; the other four were found in the 

 Seychelles, two of them being included in a new genus 

 (Pseudoficalbia). Other species are of very wide distribu- 

 tion, one of them being the almost world-wide Stegomyia 

 fasciata, notorious as the carrier of yellow fever. None 

 of the malaria-conveying forms were found in the 

 Seychelles. — F. Summers : Coast vegetation of south- 

 west Lancashire. 



Paris. 

 Acadetnv of Sciences, Tune 12. — M. Artnand Gautier in 

 the chair. — .A. Haller and Edouard Bauer : 2 : 6-dibenzoyI- 

 2 : 6-dimethylheptane and ao'-tetramethylpimelic acid. The 

 sodium derivative of a dialkylacetophenone, 



RR'CNa— CO.C.H5, 

 is treated with a dibromide, Br.(CHj) ,.Br., and the result- 

 ing diketones converted into benzene and the amide 

 NHj.CO.C(RR').(CH,)„.C(RR').CO.NHj by means of 

 sodium amide. An example of this general method has 

 been worked out, in which R and R' are methyl groups, 

 and the bromide Br.(CH2)3Br. — Pierre Termier and Jean 

 Boussac : The exotic character of gneiss and granite com- 

 plex known as the crystalline massif Hgtire, and the 

 separation of the Apennines and the Alps. — M. Zaboudski 

 was elected a correspondant for the section of mechanics 

 in succession to the late M. Sire, and E. Perroncito a 

 correspondant for the section of rural economy in suc- 

 cession to the late M. J. Kiihn. — M. Luizet : The form of 

 the curve of light of the variable star 5 Cepheus obtained 

 from the observations of .Argelander. The discontinuity in 

 the curve of luminosity of this star deduced by Argelander 

 from his observations is shown not to exist. .A curve is 

 given embodying the results of various observers, and this 

 is without a break. It is shown, moreover, that Arge- 

 lander 's own observations fall on this curve. — Marcel 

 Riesc : A method of summation equivalent to the method 

 of arithmetical means. — J. Le Roux : Incurvation and 

 flexion in finite deformations. — Louis Wertenstein : .An 

 extremely absorbable ionising radiation emitted by 

 radium C. Radium C gives off an ionising radiation 

 which is relatively intense, with penetrating power 

 analogous to that of radio-active projections, and slightly 

 deviable by the magnetic field. It is probably the projec- 

 tion of radium D by radium C. — G. Reboul : Conductivity 

 accompanying chemical reactions. — Luigi Giusranino : 

 The action of terrestrial translation upon the phenomena 

 of light. — G. Moreau : The corpuscular ionisation of 

 saline vapours and the recombination of the ions of a 

 flame. — Georges Meslin : Circular double refraction in 

 sodium chlorate. The author has constructed a triprism 

 of sodium chlorate similar to the quartz triprism of Fresnel. 

 Sodium chlorate possesses rotatory power, but differs from 

 quartz in having no ordinary double refraction. The ex- 

 pected separation of the green mercur\' line into two com- 

 ponents was clearly proved. — Miroslaw Kernbaum : The 

 decomposition of water by metals. .A repetition of 

 Traube's experiments on the simultaneous production of 

 hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide by the action of zinc and 

 other metals uf>on water. The non-production of hydrogen 

 in the absence of dissolved oxygen is confirmed, but, con- 

 trary to Traube's results, some hydrogen always appears 

 to be formed. — J. B. Senderens and J. Abouienc : The 

 catalytic preparations of fatty esters in the wet way. The 

 addition of potassium bisulphate to an equimolecular 

 mixture of acetic acid and ethyl alcohol causes a marked 

 increase in the amount of ethyl acetate formed in a given 

 time. The use of sulphuric acid in the preparation of 

 esters is discussed from this point of view. — Jean Nlvl*re : 

 The action of isobutylamine and di-isobutylamine upon 



