PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 189 
Halictus from Greece. Among them were some remarkable new forms of 
the males. 
Mr. Wood-Mason made some observations on the supposed stridulation 
of Mantis religiosa, referred to at the last meeting. 
Mr. W. Cole called attention to a statement in Dr. Kerner’s essay “ On 
Flowers and their unbidden Guests,” respecting the cause of blossoms being 
as a general rule untouched by caterpillars. Dr. Kerner presumes that 
flowers contain certain principles distasteful to larvee, and are so protected 
from their attacks. Mr. Cole suggested that the majority of caterpillars 
neglect flowers as food rather with a view to their own safety than because 
the blossoms repel them by exhibiting unwelcome taste or odours. Most 
larve find concealment among leaves and twigs which they resemble in 
colour and markings, and it would be to their disadvantage to wander on 
to brilliant flowers, where their natural protective clothing would lose its 
special value. Flowers can hardly be essentially distasteful to these 
creatures, because many species of caterpillars, and even entire genera, 
feed commonly on parts of the inflorescence; but in the habits and 
colouring of these other modes of deceiving their enemies or escaping from 
them can in most cases be detected. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan said he had pointed out long ago the fact that many 
larvee varied in colour in accordance with that of the flowers on which they 
fed, and he was disposed to think there was something in the idea that 
they found protection thereby. 
Mr. Meldola saw no objection to Dr. Kerner’s statement, from the point 
of view of vegetable physiology, since it is quite possible for flowers to secrete 
special chemical compounds quite distinct from anything found in other 
parts of the plant. With regard to larvee which feed upon flowers to which 
they are adapted in colour, it is not improbable that such adaptation may 
result from the actual presence of the colouring matter of the flower in the 
tissues of the larve, the digestive organs of which may have become 
modified by natural selection, so as to permit of such permeation of 
unaltered colouring matters. In the case of green caterpillars unaltered 
chlorophyl had been detected spectroscopically in the tissues. 
Mr. H. J. Elwes mentioned a case of injury done to a species of 
Sternbergia by some larva feeding in the bulb. Mr. M‘Lachlan suggested it 
was probably that of the dipterous genus Merodon, which is known to 
attack bulbs of various plants. 
Dr. Sharp communicated a paper “On some Coleoptera from the 
Hawaiian Islands.” 
Mr. Peter Cameron communicated a paper “On some new or little- 
known British Hymenoptera.” 
Part V. of the ‘ Transactions’ for 1878, containing index, title-page, &c., 
was on the table-—R. Mextpoxa, Hon. Sec. 
