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met with in British waters. — A communication was read from Dr.M. Wat- 
son, F.Z.S., containing additional observations on the structure of the 
female organs of the Indian Elephant (Elaphus indicus). — A communication 
was read from Mr. F. Moore, F.Z.S., containing the descriptions of some 
new Asiatic Diurnal Lepidoptera. — A communication was read from Mr. 
R. Trimen, F.R.S., in which he gave a description of a remarkable semi- 
melanoid variety of the Leopard (Felis pardus) in the Albany Museum, 
Grahamstown, which had been obtained in the east of the Cape Colony. — 
A communication was read from the Count H. von Berlepsch and Mr. 
L. Taczanowski, in which an account was given of an extensive collec- 
tion of birds made by MM. Stolzmann and Siemiradzki in Western Ecuador. 
— P.L.Sclater, Secretary. 
2. Linnean Society of London. 
15th November 1883. — Professor P. Martin Duncan showed a spe- 
cimen of Coral (Desmophyllum crista-galli) which had grown upon an electric 
telegraph cable off the shores of Spain, it possessed radicles, apparently due 
to the presence of a worm close beneath the base of the Coral. — Mr. 
E.P. Ramsay exhibited a series of rare New Guinea Birds, prominent 
among which were; — Chamosyna Margaretheae, Geoffroyius heteroclitus, Cinny- 
ris melanocephalus, Myragra ferrocyanea, Pallopus Richards, R. Lewisü etc. 
— Dr. J. Murie showed and made remarks on specimens of Ascaris bicolor 
Baird, from the living Walrus at the Westminster Aquarium. — A paper 
was read by Mr. J. J. Briant, in which he describes the minute structure 
of the segments joints and certain rod and cone like organs, previously re- 
ferred to by Dr. Braxton Hicks, of highly sensitive functions. — The next 
communication was — »On the Japanese Languriidae, their habits and ex- 
ternal sexual characteristics« by George Lewis. He remarks that one re- 
presentative of the family has been found in Siberia, lat. 460 (Z. Menetriesi) ; 
there are none in Europe, and one is known from Egypt. Others inhabit the 
Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, and the American Continent. The author infers 
from the geographical distribution of these beetles that they have emanated 
from a tropical area. Some in the imago state cling to the stems of brush- 
wood; others sit on the leaves of moist shade-loving plants in the forests 
while still others frequent debris on hill sides. Their colours are all dull, 
their bodies elongate and structurally not adapted for boring. The sexes 
show peculiar differences in size, monstrous enlargement and obliquity of the 
head, volume of tibia, etc. In the Munich catalogue, 1876, there are only 
114 species of Languriidae given and Harold in the paper cited describes in 
1879 about 40 more, yet the total, say 160 can be but a small portion of 
those existing in nature, or even actually now extant in our collections. It 
cannot be said that the fashioning of the Languriidae is the result of in- 
fluences 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 external struc- 
ture 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 anda 
process, which is not immediately obvious, checks in all its stages variation 
