THE ZooLoGist—JAaNvuARY, 1875. 4307 
connection with the surroundings of its place of attachment, the pupa 
appearing to assume a protective resemblance to the surface to which it is 
fixed, and suggesting that some photographic influence might be at work. 
A discussion ensued, in which Professor Westwood, Mr. M‘Lachlan and 
others took part; and Mr. Meldola remarked, in reply to Mr. M‘Lachlan, 
that the action of light upon the sensitive skin of a pupa had no analogy 
with its action on any known photographic chemical. No known sub- 
stance retained permanently the colour reflected on it by adjacent objects. 
Mr. Meldola further observed that there was no difficulty in believing 
that larvee might become affected in colour by the colouring matter of the 
food-plant, since chlorophyll in an unaltered condition had been found in 
the tissues of green larve. Facts of this nature did not, however, exclude 
the possibility of the action of Natural Selection in such cases, for the 
property of showing the colour of the tissues through the skin, if of 
advantage to the species, would be preserved through this agency, as already 
discussed in a paper published in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for February, 1873. 
The Secretary read a letter he had received from Mr. Ogier Ward, 
enclosing a drawing of a spider’s nest, with some remarks thereon by 
Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse. Mr. Ward had found the nest attached to 
some long grass in a quarry near Poissy, on the Seine. Mr. Waterhouse, 
on examination, found it to be nearly filled with sand, but in the centre he 
found “a dry, rough, flat piece” attached to the base, which on soaking in 
water for some hours, he discovered to be filled with a number of minute 
spiders measuring one-twelfth of an inch. The granules of sand were held 
together and to the inner-bag by fine threads of web. He believed the 
object of the sand was to prevent the case being blown away, but he was not 
aware to what species the nest appertained. 
Mr. W. F. Kirby contributed a review of Dr. Boisduval’s “‘ Monographie 
des Agaristidées,” published in the ‘ Revue et Magasin de Zoologie,’ 1874, 
pp. 26—110. He directed attention to the absence, in Dr. Boisduval’s 
arrangement, of the genera Mania and Larunda, Hiibn. (Sematura and 
Coronis, auct.), the former of which has been placed by all authors close to 
Nyctalemon, and at times even included in the genus. 
Mr. Butler communicated “ Descriptions of three new Species and a 
new Genus of Diurnal Lepidoptera from the collection of Andrew Swanzy, 
Esq.” 
Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse contributed “ Notes on Australian Coleoptera, 
with descriptions of new Species.” 
The Rey. R. P. Murray communicated “ Descriptions of some new Species 
of Butterflies belonging to the Genus Lycena.” He added thereto some 
remarks on the species furnished with spots on the anal angle of the hind 
wing, and also on those furnished with tails—neither of which characters 
he considered sufficient to afford generic distinctions. 
