SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 159 



Mr. F. P. Pascoe exhibited selections from a collection of Curculionida 

 from New Guinea, consisting of specimens collected by D'Albertis and 

 others, comprising upwards of three hundred species, of which probably 

 oue half were undescribed. 



The President observed that, with a view to the fertilization of clover, 



the agriculturists of New Zealand have for some time been anxious to 



import humble-bees into their colony ; previous experiments having failed, 



Mr. Nottidge, ot Ashford, had been endeavouring to supply the want. 



Impregnated humble-bees are often found in a state of torpor, hiding in 



holes in banks and hedgerows when the process of hedging and ditching 



was carried on in November and December. Mr. Nottidge advertised for 



specimens, offering a small sum for every living queen ; and the result was 



that he was able to dispatch to Christchurch, N. Z., a parcel of twenty 



impregnated queens on the 13th December, 1883, and a lot of sixty on the 



10th January, 1884. Each queen was packed in dry moss, and placed 



in a separate box, with a cake of candy in case of the temperature on the 



voyage rising to such a height as to revivify them, but with instructions 



to keep them at about 40°. The humble-bees were sent in ships fitted 



with refrigerators for the carriage of meat, and it was hoped that by 



maintaining a temperature not exceeding 40° they would remain in a 



semi-torpid state until their arrival in the colony. The success of the 



experiment remains to be seen ; but it will be tried on a larger scale at 



the end of the present year. 



The President said that he had just received the first part of the 

 Transactions of the Huddersfield Naturalists' Society, which contains 

 " A Catalogue of the Lepidoptera found in the Huddersfield District," by 

 Messrs. Mosley and Porritt. The list includes 666 species. He made 

 some remarks on the alleged scarcity or disappearance of species formerly 

 common. A discussion ensued in which it was generally agreed that 

 butterfiies were everywhere in Britain considerably scarcer than was the 

 case thirty years ago, and this quite irrespective of the infiuence of bad 

 seasons. 



The Secretary read a report from the Committee re-appointed on the 

 subject of the supposed presence of Pliylloxera vastatrlx on vines in the 

 colony of Victoria. The Committee had carefully examined roots, and 

 regretted to be obliged to report that the Phylloxera is undoubtedly present 

 upon them, and in some numbers. They made various suggestions as to 

 destruction of bines and roots, and treatment of ground in which infected 

 vines have been grown. 



Mr. J. W. Douglas communicated a paper " On a new species of the 

 genus Orthezia" (0 . manariensis), received from M. J. Lichtenstein, who 

 obtained it from Montecristo, where it was found on Erica arborea. 

 Drawings of the insects were exhibited. 



