19: 



NA TURE 



[December 26, 1907 



New South Wales. 

 ■: Linnean Society, September 25.— Mr. J. II. Maiden, 

 vice-president, in the cliair. — The genus Petalura, with 

 description of a new species (Neuroptera : Odonata) :' R. J. 

 Tillyard. This remarkable isolated genus is probably a 

 relic of an ancient Australian odonate fauna, which is now 

 being steadily displaced by an Asiatic invasion. 

 P. gigantca, Leach, occurs round Sydney and on the Blue 

 Mountains, and^ was described nearly a hundred years igo. 

 It is about 4J inches across the wings. The new species, 

 P. ingcntissima, is found in northern Queensland. It is 

 the largest dragon-fly known to exist "at present (about 

 6 inches across the wings), and seems to show connection 

 with the huge Tertiary Gomphinae which have been found 

 in a fossil state. It is exceedingly rare, and becoming 

 obsolete ; the only two specimens known are the types. — 

 The dragon-flies of south-western Australia : R. J. 

 Tillyard. The district worked was that lying between 

 Perth on the north and Cape Leeuwin on the south, which 

 has a regular and abundant rainfall. It may be divided 

 into two portions, the Darling Ranges with their running 

 streams, and the low coastal strip with lagoons and 

 marshes. The Odonata of the two portions were found to 

 be very distinct. Twenty-six species were noted, of which 

 six are new and very interesting forms (referable to the 

 genera Synthemis [2], Austrogomphus, .'\ustroaeschna, 

 Argiolestes, and Pseudagrion) ; four or five others are very 

 rare, and the rest are common eastern species. Many of 

 the species are black or nearly so, and seek protection on 

 the burnt stumps or in the foliage of the " black-boys " 

 (Xanthorrhoea), which are abundant evervwhere. — Note on 

 a glaucophane schist from the Conandale Range, Queens- 

 land : H. I. Jensen, — Chemical note on recent lava from 

 Savaii : H. I. Jensen. — Revision of Australian Lepido- 

 ptera, part iv. : Dr. A. J. Turner. This paper continues 

 the revision of the family Geometrida;, and is mainly con- 

 cerned with the subfamily Sterrhinje. When Mr. Meyrick 

 revised this group in 1S87, he recognised thirty-two species, 

 referred to five genera ; the present revision treats of one 

 hundred and two species, ascribed to twenty genera. Five 

 species, referable to the subfamily Hydriomeninje (dealt 

 with in the preceding paper), are also described as new. 



October 30.— Mr. A. H. Lucas, president, in 

 the chair. — The Tertiary limestones and foramini- 

 feral tuffs of Malekula, New Hebrides : F. Chapman. 

 These rocks form part of the collection made by Mr. D. 

 Mawson in 1903. The paper deals with the Miocene and 

 the post-Miocene rocks of Malekula, south of Santo. 

 Trillina has been found to occur in the New Hebrides ; this 

 genus has already been proved to exist in South .'\ustralia 

 and the Philippines, which thereby connects the south coast 

 of Australia with the islands of east Australasia and por- 

 tions of the East Indian Archipelago, along which line in 

 Oligocene tijnes there probably existed a shallow-water 

 area where such forms could flourish. A new species of 

 Alveolina found in the Malekula limestone had already been 

 figured from Javan Miocene limestones. LepidocycJina 

 angtdaris. found at Malekula, and already known ' from 

 Miocene limestone in the Loo-Choo Islands, off Japan, 

 shows a further extension of the Miocene shore-line as far 

 north as Japan. — A collection of dragon-flies from Central 

 ."Vustralia, with descriptions of new species : R. J. 

 Tillyard. The collection was made by Mr. J. F. Field! 

 and is probably typical of the odonate fauna of Central 

 Australia. Though well within the tropics, yet the locality 

 exhibits no definite tropical forms. The 320 specimens 

 examined comprise ten species ; eight are common over 

 Australia, two are new. One, Lcstes aridiis, is allied to 

 L. leda and L. analis ; the other, Aiistrosticta Fieldi, is 

 the type of a new genus.— Memoir on a few heteropterous 

 Hemiptera from eastern Australia : G. W. Kirkaldy. 

 This memoir records the Heteroptera collected by Mr. A 

 Koebele and Dr. R. C. L. Perkins in Queensland, and bv 

 Mr. Koebele in New South Wales. "Seven genera and 

 twenty-five species are proposed as new.— The geographical 

 significance of floods, with especial reference to glacial 

 action : E. C. Andrews. The forms of roadside gutters 

 and of miniature canons admit of explanation, since the 

 NO, 1 99 1, VOL. 77] 



time occupied in their formation falls within decades. 

 Storm-formed canons show, in the initial stages, spurlc^s 

 trenches O-shaped in cross-section, the trench bases posse; 

 ing deep basins. .At a later stage these canons sho 

 double slopes, the upper V-shaped, the base U-shaped, n 

 cross-section. This lower contour represents the flood con- 

 tour. In river valleys, along shore-lines, and in glacial 

 canons, forms similar to these occur. .\long miniature 

 canons generally the flood alone does the corrosive work. 

 The application of such truths to glacial canons explains 

 drumlin forms and other apparent anomalies. — Solandrine, 

 a new midriatic alkaloid : Dr. J. M. Petrie. The alkaloid 

 belongs to the atropine group, and resembles hyoscine. It 

 differs from hyoscine in its aurochloride in not reddening 

 phnnolphthalein, and it yields atropic instead of tropic acid 

 when hydrolysed. Though the exact constitution of the 

 alkaloid has not been worked out, the results afford 

 evidence of the existence of a tropeine alkaloid in Solaiidra 

 lacvis, for which the name solandrine is proposed. — 

 Description d'une nouvelle Esp^ce d'Oxyhtmus (Colco- 

 ptera : Colydiida?) : A. Grouvelle. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Electric Traction. By Gisbert Kapp 169 



Veterinary Anatomy 170 



The Romance of Savage Life 171 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Diels : " Die Vegetation der Erde " ....... 171 



SchafTer : "Das inneralpine Becken der Umgebung 



von Wien." — G. A. J. C 172 



"The British Journal Photographic Almanac and 



Photographer's Daily Companion for igoS " . . . 172 



Readymoney : " Science of Nature-History " .... 172 



Orage : "Nielzsche in Outline and Aphorism '' . . . 173 

 Letters to the Editor :— 



The Photoelectric Property of Selenium. — Prof. 



George M. Minchin, F. R.S 173 



Early Chinese Description of the Leaf-Insects. — 



Kumagusu Minakata 173 



The Salmon. (Illustratea.) 173 



Entomology for the Young. [I/luslrahd. ) By Fred. 



V. Theobald 175 



Lord Kelvin. By Prof Silvanus P. Thompson, F. R.S. 175 



Lord Kelvin's Funeral in Westminster Abbey . . . 177 



Notes 179 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Nova Persei, 1901 182 



Provisional Elements for the Spectroscopic Binary 



a Andromeda: • 182 



Photographs of Mars 182 



Saturn apparently without Rings 182 



Prizes Proposed by the Paris Academy of Sciences 



for 1909 . 183 



Recent Work of Geological Surveys. (Illustrated.) 



By G. A. J. C 183 



Archaeology in America. By H. R. Hall 186 



The Pelycosaurian Reptiles. By R. L 1S6 



University and Educational Intelligence 187 



Societies and Academies 187 



i 



