144 Miscellaneous. 



greater veteran, Mr. William Bean, of Scarborough, who was a zealous 

 and kind-hearted collector of shells, fossils, and plants. 



Hatching of the Mantis in England. 

 By Henry Denny. 



Not being aware if there is an instance on record of the hatching of 

 any species of Mantis in England, I beg to inform you that, on the 

 1 2th of December last, I was much gratified by the sight of a very 

 lively little specimen in a tumbler glass, up and down the sides of 

 which it was rapidly pacing in pursuit of small flies, and every now 

 and then elevating its prothorax and anterior pair of feet, in the 

 well-known attitude of these insects when searching for food. A 

 young friend of mine, Mr. H. L. Watson, of Leeds, detached a clus- 

 ter of eggs from a post, about a mile out of the town of Melbourne, 

 Australia, where he had observed it for a month previously, towards 

 the end of August ; these were placed in a small box. After his arrival 

 in England, he examined the box, and found about twenty specimens 

 hatched, and all dead ; on the 10th of December, however, another, 

 the one above alluded to, made its appearance, and fed readily upon 

 small flies for about fifteen days, when, owing to the supply failing, 

 the little Mantis became too weak to kill larger flies, though it still 

 made efforts to do so, and at last died. Had it occurred earlier in 

 the season, there is little doubt that by keeping the specimen in a 

 greenhouse, with a good supply of food, it would have arrived at 

 maturity and lived many weeks. My friend tells me the species is 

 very plentiful in the neighbourhood of Melbourne, where it is a 

 common practice to place specimens of the Mantis on the window- 

 blinds, where they keep the room clear of flies by their incessant 

 watchfulness for food. 



On some points in the Structure of the Xiphosura, having reference 

 to their Relationship with the Eurypterida. By Henry Wood- 

 ward, Esq., F.G.S., F.Z.S., of the British Museum. 



The author pointed out that Prof. M' Coy's tribe Poecilopoda was 

 intended to include the Limuli, with Eurypterus, Pterygotus^ and 

 Belinurus. Prof. Huxley had already shown (in 1859) that this 

 classification was founded upon an erroneous interpretation of the 

 fossils, then (1849) only known in England by extremely frag- 

 mentary remains. 



The object of this communication was to demonstrate that although 

 Prof. M' Coy's classification was based on conjecture rather than 

 upon a minute acquaintance with the anatomy of these extinct forms, 

 yet the subsequent researches of Profs. Agassiz and Hall in America, 

 Prof. Nieszkowski in Russia, and the independent investigations of 

 Mr. J. W. Salter and the author in this country have shown that a 

 close relationship actually does exist between the Xiphosura and 

 the Eurypterida. 



The author then gave a detailed comparison of the structure of 



