SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 33 



State cling to the stems of brushwood, others sit on the leaves of moist 

 shade-loving plants in the forests, while others, again, frequent debris on hill- 

 sides. Their colours are all dull, their bodies elongate, but not structurally 

 adapted for boring. The sexes show peculiar differences in size, monstrous 

 enlargement, and obliquity of the head, volume of tibiiB, &c. In the 

 Municli Catalogue, 1876, there are only 114 species of Languriidm given, 

 and Harold, in the paper cited, describes in 1879 about 40 more, yet the 

 total — say 160 — can i)e but a small portion of those existing in nature, or 

 even acually now extant in our collections. It cannot be said that the 

 fashioning of the LanguriidcE is the result of influences affecting the insect 

 in some early stage (as larva or pupa) before the imago appears, because we 

 see throughout the whole of the insect world that in each stage of an insect 

 forms are assumed which are adapted solely to such stage, and are entirely 

 free and uncontrolled by any internal structure of the individual during any 

 antecedent stage of its existence. Each, as a larva or imago, is formed for 

 Its environment to crawl or fly, and a process which is not immediately 

 obvious checks in all its stages variation or an abrupt departure from the 

 type of its predecessor. The following uew species are described by the 

 &\xt\\or ■.—Doubledaya succulenta, Lawjuria nigens, L. nara, L. columella, 

 and L.fuscosa. 



Prof. P. Martin Duncan read a paper " On the replacement of a true 

 wall or theca by epitheca in some serial Corallm, and on the importance of 

 the structure iu the growth of incrusting Corals." After alluding to the 

 discussions which have taken place regarding the value of epitheca in 

 classification, the author states that one form of this structure is simply 

 protective, and that another form is of high physiological value, for it 

 replaces entirely the usual theca or wall. The anatomy of the hard 

 structures of a Cceloria illustrates the second proposition, for the broad base 

 IS covered by an epitheca within which is no wall or "plateau commun"; 

 the septa, remarkable nodular walls (described in detail), and the columelliB 

 arise from the epitheca directly, and it limits the interseptal loculi inferiorly. 

 In a Leptoria the same replacement of a wall by epitheca is seen. In 

 incrusting Pontes and such Astraida as Leptastrma, the majority of the 

 corallites of the colony arise from this basal epithecate structure, and grow 

 upwards, budding subsequently from their sides. 



December 6, 1883.— Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., President, 

 in the chair. 



His Highness the Maharajah of Travancore, and Messrs. C. A. Barber, 

 E. Bostock, H. Friend, J. Hannington, J. S. Hicks, J. Pdchardson, R. Tate^ 

 and H. Tisdall, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



A large number of Lepidoptera from the district of Georgetown, 

 Colorado, and a few from Missouri, were exhibited by Mr. Ernest Jacob, 



The Zoologist.— Jan. 1884. p 



