98 



Office of the Winy-rays of Insects. 



Read, a paper by Mr. Newman, intituled 'A Memorandum on the Wing-rays 

 of Insects,' in which the author maintains, in opposition to the pul)lished views 

 of Harold, Kirby ^ Spence, Oken, Westwood, and other distinguished entomcdogists, 

 that the wing-rays are the supports of the membranous portion of the wing, and 

 in all respects the analogues, although not the homologues, of the wing-bones of 

 the bat, and that the passage of air, blood and nerves through their channels is 

 simply a provision of Nature for their maintenance in a healthy and efficient 

 condition. He supported this view by a reference to experiments and observations 

 on living insects, and also by the anatomical researches of Chabrier and Bower- 

 bank, which he had himself verified. 



July 2, 1855. — John Cuktis, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors : — ' Proceedings of the Royal Society,' Vol. vii., No. 1.3 ; by the Society. ' The 

 Literary Gazette ' for June ; by the Editor. ' The Journal of the Society of Arts ' for 

 June; by the Society. ' The Zoologist' for July ; by the Editor. ' Revue et Magasin 

 de Zoologie,' 1855, No. 5 ; by the Editor, M. Guerin Meneville. ' Monograph on the 

 British Species of Phalangidae or Harvest-men ' ; by R. H. Meade, F.R.C.S. ; by the 

 Author. ' Saussure's Monographic des Guepes Sociales', Cahir, No. 7 ; by the Author. 

 A specimen of the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris); by Mr. J. P. Edwards, of Lynd- 

 hurst, Hants. 



Election of Members. 



John Walter Lea, Esq., of Ranisgate, and Alexander Fry, Esq., of Montague 

 Square, were balloted for, and elected members of the Society. 



Exhibitions. 



Mr. Meade returned and exhibited the collection of British Arachnida, preserved in 

 glass tubes, formerly presented by him to the Society, and which had recently been for- 

 warded to him for the purpose of replenishing the spirit in the tubes : he had also 

 considerably increased tlie number of sjjecies in the collection, which now numbers 

 ninety-four true spiders and thirteen Phalangida;. Mr. Meade stated that he now 

 employed as a substitute for spirit, a saline solution composed of equal weights 

 of water and sulphate of magnesia, with the addition of a small quantity of alcohol 

 and sulphuric acid ; this docs not injure the colours of spiders, as spirit almost 

 invariably does. 



Mr. Foxcroft sent for exhibition a small box of Lepidoptcra, recently taken in 

 Perthshire ; it also contained the silken galleries formed in ants' nests by the larvae of 

 Tinea ochraceella, Teny. 



