442 REPORT—1905. 
JOHANNESBURG, 
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Mimicry in South African Insects. By Professor E. B. Pouuron, #.2.S. 
2. The Migration of Birds in the Southern Hemisphere.' 
By W. L. Scrarar, WA. 
3. On some South African Land Planarians. 
Sy Dr. H. Lyster JAMESON. 
Some dozen species of Land Planarians have recently been collected in Natal, 
all of which, with the exception of the cosmopolitan and imported Placocephalus 
kewensis, are new and are provisionally referred to the essentially African genus 
Amblyplana. The lack of anatomical data makes it impossible to accurately 
define the limits of this genus. These Natal forms, five of which have been 
studied anatomically, although they approximate externally to Amblyplana, and 
in certain cases to other allied genera, are anatomically very close to the highly 
specialised Artiocotylus. They agree with this genus in the possession of a 
specialised uterus connected with the fused oviducts by a short stalk. Outside 
these South African forms this uterus is unknown among Land Planarians, if we 
except Zthyncodemus scharffi, » form described by v. Graff from Ireland, and 
regarded as doubtfully indigenous. 
Von Graff regards this uterus in Artiocotylus as homologous with the dorsal 
outgrowths of the genital atrium found in other forms, and treats its connection 
with the fused oviducts or ‘ Driisengang’ as secondary, and the stalk of the uterus 
as the original connection between the uterus and the atrium, 
The discovery of two forms which the author is describing elsewhere as Am- 
blyplana viridis and A. natalensis, in which the stalk of the uterus is not present 
and the relations are much the same as in Rhyncodemus scharfi among Land 
Planarians, Planaria polychroa, P. alberscina and P. gonocephala among Paludicola 
and Gunda ulve among Maricola, suggests that this diverticulum is really to be 
compared to the uterus of aquatic forms, 
From Amblyplana viridis with a simple vagina and ‘ Driisengang’ giving off 
the dorsal uterus various modifications can be traced. 
The vagina may be provided with a special musculature (as in the species the 
author is describing as A. natalensis), a direct connection (stalk of the uterus) may be 
developed between the uterus and the genital pore (as in Artiocotylus speciosus, 
y. Graff, and another of the Natal forms), and, finally, the stalk of the uterus may 
be specialised as a muse’uar copulating organ, as in two other forms, 
4. Locust Destruction in the Transvaal, Season 1904-5. By C. B. Simpson. 
The subject was treated under the following headings :— 
1. Résumé of past invasions of the Transvaal. 2. Species of locusts concerned. 
3. Life history of locusts: @. Brown locusts; 6. Purple locusts, 4. Paths of 
migration in the Transvaal. 5. Distribution of locusts in the Transvaal, season 
1904-5. 6. Natural enemies. 7. Methods of artiticial destruction: Mechanical ; 
Spraying, oils, soap, and arsenical spraying; Locust fungus, 8. Results of locust 
campaign. 9. Plan for future campaigns. 
' To be published in the Jowrnal of the South African Ornithological Union, 
