IS 



being probably due to excessive dessication. Mr. Terry said he 

 tasted " Kungu" cake made of a species of Corethra, which is 

 collected in myriads in the lake district of Central Africa; the 

 flavor and texture suggested oatmeal. Dr. Cobb stated that at 

 one time a committee was appointed in Nebraska to experiment 

 with grass-hoppers for food. The food was found palatable 

 but its general introduction seems to have failed. 



APRIL 6th, 1905. 



The fourth regular meeting was held in the usual place, Mr. 

 Perkins in the chair. 



Papers. 



Mr. G. W. KiRKALDY spoke on "Stridnlation in the Corixidae" 

 and subsequently presented the following brief note for publica- 

 tion : 



"As early as 1727 Frisch announced that the common European 

 Broad Water- Bug {Ilyocoris cimicoides, Linne) produced a fid- 

 dling sound with its neck; this has not been properly elucidated, 

 however, up to the present. Last year Bueno of New York dis- 

 covered the stridulatory areas in Ranatra. The first observations 

 on Corixidae were recorded by Robert Ball of England in 1846 

 and the latest by Kirkaldy in 1901. (Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, 

 Apr. 1901). The anterior tarsus is unjointed; it is flattened and 

 dilated, in shape more or less like a knife blade. On the inner 

 face of this tarsus there are in the males numerous chitinous pegs, 

 which vary in number, form and position in the various species 

 (constituting the most valuable and precise test of a species in 

 this family). On the anterior femora there are rows, on the inner 

 face, of small spines or pegs and it is by the friction of the tarsal 

 pegs on the pegs of the opposite femur that the sound is produced. 

 It was formerly supposed that the striated mouthparts were thus 

 operated upon, but in 1901 Kirkaldy demonstrated the employ- 

 ment of the femoral areas. It is only in the males that these pegs 

 occur. A further (supposed) stridulatory organ was announced 

 in 1873 by F. B. White. This is a remarkable structure consist- 

 ing of several (varying in form and number) more or less over- 

 lapping chitinous plates on a pedicel attached to one of the abdomi- 

 nal tergites. Kirkaldy thought that if this were really a stridu- 



