January 30, 1902] 



NA TURE 



Hope Inlet, Patagonia. This new specimen was fixed in the bone 

 and bore trace of the soft parts. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., 

 exhibited and made remarks upon the skin of a female yellow- 

 backed duiker {Cephaloplius sylvicullrix) which had been 

 obtained in the .\wemba district of north-eastern Rhodesia, 

 and presented to the British Museum by Mr. Robert Codringlon. 

 This species had previously been known only from West Africa. 

 — Mr. Tegetmeier exhibited the skin of an animal which it had 

 been suggested was a hybrid between a hare and a rabbit, but 

 which proved to be merely a variety of a hare. — Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton, F. R.S., read a paper (illustrated with lantern-slides) 

 by Mr. R. Shelford, curator of the Sarawak Museum, on cases 

 of mimicry amongst Bornean insects and spiders. The author, 

 who had carefully studied this subject in the Malay Archipelago, 

 had made some striking discoveries, and among them were : 

 (l) the well-marked mimetic resemljlance of the Mantispidne to 

 the Hymenoptera ; (2) the wonderfully large and complex 

 group of insects of all kinds which mimicked the common 

 dammar bee ( Trigonaafi(alis) ; (3) the large amount of mimicry 

 in longicorn beetles, some resemhling Hymenoptera, others 

 Phytophaga, others Lycidn; and others Rhynchophora ; (4) the 

 fact that longicorns of the genus Chloridolum and also of some 

 genera of Clytina; were mimicked by other longicorns ; and (5) 

 the re-discovery of the locustid Coiidylodera tricondyloiJes, 

 formerly described by Westwood from Java, being a splendid 

 mimic of the cicindelid Tricondyla. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. F. H. A. Marshall, describing the variation in the 

 number and arrangement of the male genital apertures in the 

 Norway lobster {Nephrops norvegiciis), as observed on an 

 examination of a series of 1080 specimens of this crustacean. — 

 A paper was read by Dr. Einar Lonnberg chiefly dealing with 

 the alimentary canal of Trichosurus, Pseudochirus, Phalanget 

 and Petaurus. The varying length of the different sections of 

 the gut and their structure were correlated with the varied food 

 of these marsupials. — A communication from Dr. L. von Lorenz 

 gave an account ol the mounted specimen of the quagga (Equiis 

 qtiagga) in the Imperial Museum of Natural History at Vienna, 

 and pointed out its differences from other known specimens of 

 this animal. — Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote contributed a paper on a 

 small collection of mammals made by Mr. Th. H. Lyle in 

 Siam. Of the eight species enumerated in the paper, a hare 

 was described as new under the name of Lepiis siameinis. — A 

 communication from Dr. .\. G. Butler contained an account of 

 two collections of Lepidoptera made by Sir H. H. Johnston, 

 K.C.B., in the Uganda Protectorate during the year 1900. 

 The species, of which specimens were contained in the col- 

 lection, were enumerated, and three of them, \\z. Hariiia 

 johnsloni, Psetidathyiita pltitotiica and Aphnaeus hollandi, were 

 described as new. — Mr. W. L. Distant communicated a paper 

 on the insects of the order Rhynchota collected by Sir H. H. 

 Johnston, K.C. B., in the Uganda Protectorate, in which it was 

 pointed out that (he species, of which specimens were contained 

 in the collection, showed marked affinities with the West 

 African forms of these insects. 



Entomological Society, January 15. — The sixty-ninth 

 annual meeting, the Rev. Canon Fowler, president, in the chair. 

 — It was announced that the following had been elected officers 

 and council for the session 1902-1903 : — President, the Rev. 

 Canon Fowler; treasurer, Mr. Robert McLachlan, F.R.S. ; 

 secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss and Mr. Henry Rowland-Brown ; 

 librarian, Mr. George C. Champion ; and as other members 

 of council, Mr. R. Adkin, Prof. T. H. Beare, Mr. 

 Arthur J. Chitty, Mr. W. L. Distant, Dr. F. D. Godman, 

 F.RS., the Rev. Francis D. Morice, Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R S., Mr. Edward Saunders, Dr. David Sharp, F. R.S., and 

 Colonel Swinhoe. The president announced that he should 

 appoint Dr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R S., Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F. R.S., and Dr. D. Sharp, F. R.S., as vice-presidents for the 

 session 1902-1903. He then delivered an address in which he 

 dealt chiefly with the question of protective resemblance and 

 mimicry in the case of the Coleoptera, a branch of the subject 

 concerning which but little has been recorded, although mimicry 

 in this order is quite as important as in the case of the Lepi- 

 doptera ; as a matter of fact, beetles are protected in many 

 ways : by a hard integument, by the assimilation of colour or 

 form to environment, by adopting colours in strong contrast to 

 environment (warning colours), by protective attitudes, by warn- 

 ing attitudes, by warning sounds, by the secretion of distasteful 

 juices or odorous substances, by resemblance to unplea.sant sub- 

 stances such as the droppings of birds, by resemblance to well- 



NO. 1683, VOL. 65] 



protected insects other than Coleoptera such as ants, bees and 

 wasps, by imitating other genera and species of the same order 

 which are plainly distasteful In the course of the address it 

 was pointed out how easily it can be proved that beetles form a 

 large part of the food of birds, as their hard elytra or wing- 

 cases remain for some time entire in their stomachs ; in this 

 way it can be proved which species are most liked, and 

 which are disliked or rejected. It is an interesting fact that 

 many of the rapacious l)irds devour large numbers of beetles, 

 and that a systematic examination of the stomachs of birds proves 

 that the damage done to game is much less than is usually be- 

 lieved, for many of the most persecuted species are mainly or 

 to a very great extent insectivorous ; it would be well, there- 

 fore, on all grounds, that the indiscriminate slaughter of our few 

 remaining birds of prey should be rigorously discountenanced. 



P.XRIS. 



Academy of Sciences, January 20. — M. Bouquet de la 

 Grye in the chair — On the use of lunar distances at sea, by 

 M. E. Guyou. The method for the determination of the longitude 

 by lunar distances has fallen into disrepute during the last 

 century, and the Bureau des Longitudes has decided that the 

 amount of work required each year for the prediction of lunar 

 distances is out of all proportion to the benefit derived from 

 them by mariners ; in the next volume of the Contiaissance dis 

 temps, for 1905, these calculations will accordingly be discon- 

 tinued. In the present paper a simplified formula is worked 

 out for the case of those navigators who still wish to use this 

 method. — On some properties of fused lime, by M. Henri 

 Moissan. Quicklime, if pure and free from silicate, is melted 

 only in small quantity and with great difficulty at the highest 

 temperature obtainable with the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe ; it is, 

 however, melted with great ease in the electric furnace, and 

 with an arc of 1000 amperes first melts and then boils. On 

 cooling, the crystals were found to belong to the cubical system, 

 although after keeping for some months the crystals broke 

 up into others which acted upon polarised light. The density 

 of the lime was raised from 3-3 to 34 by fusion. Since lime 

 forms the basis of the electric furnace, it was of importance to 

 study the eff'ect of heating it to high temperatures with various 

 substances. The results of the reactions wiih carbon, silicon, 

 boron, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt 

 and platinum are given. — The analysis of some antique metallic 

 objects, by M. Berthelot. — On the passage from hermaphrodism 

 to the separation of the sexes by unilateral parasitic castration, 

 by M. Alfred Giard. It appears probable that there exists in 

 the Composite parasitic fungi of several kinds. The morpho- 

 genic action of these upon their host varies, and the influence 

 of these parasites upon the condition of sexuality of their hosts 

 is equally variable, and furnishes natural experiments of great 

 interest for general biology. — On the conditions to the limits 

 in hydrodynamics, by M. P. Duheni.— On the growth of entire 

 functions, by M. Pierre Boutroux. — Remarks on the preceding 

 communication, by M. Paul Painleve.— On factorial series, by 

 M. Niels Nielsen. — Coincidences between the elements of the 

 planets, by .M. Jean Mascart.— On the application of the 

 Lagrangian equations to electrodynamic and electromagnetic 

 phenomena, by M. Lienard. M. Carvallo, starting with the 

 example of Barlow's wheel, comes to the conclusion that the 

 equations of Lagrange are not always applicable to electro- 

 dynamic phenomena, especially in the case of conductors of two 

 or three dimensions. In the present paper it is shown that this 

 restriction is unnecessary and that a rigorous application of the 

 Lagrangian equations gives perfectly exact results in the case 

 of the motion of Barlow's wheel. — Electrodynamics of bodies in 

 motion, by M. E. Carvallo. — Critical constants and molecular 

 complexity of some organic compounds, by MM. Ph. A. Guye 

 and Ed. Mallet. The conclusion is drawn that all the aliphatic 

 nitriles are clearly polymerised, their coefficients of polymerisa- 

 tion being larger than have been hitherto observed. — On some 

 physical properties of hydrogen selenide, by MM. de Forcrand 

 and Fonzes-Diacon. The gas was obtained in a pure state by 

 the action of a little water upon pure aluminium selenide over 

 mercury. Its boiling point under ordiaary pressure was found 

 to be -42° C, its melting point -64' C, and its density in the 

 liquid state 212 at -42' C. Its solubility in water was found 

 to be less than has usually been supposed.— Remarks on the 

 oxides of molybdenum, by M. Marcel Guichard.— On the de- 

 composition of acetylene during its combustion, by M. Fernand 

 Gaud. An experimental study into the causes of the choking 



