42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Captain Gamble Geddes, A.D.C., read a paper on 



THE AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



The writer of this paper took the ground " that insects are capable 

 of feeling quite as much attachment to their offspring as the largest 

 quadrupeds. They undergo severe privations in nourishing them ; 

 they expose themselves to great risks in defending them, and even at 

 the time of death much anxiety is exhibited for their preservation." 

 This was not claimed for all insects, but in proof of the writer's con- 

 tention the instances adduced were those of the common house-fly, 

 the common white butterfly, the musquito, the gadfly, ichneumon 

 flies, the ephemeridse, the clothes-moth, the wild bee and the beetle. 



Reference was made to the various expedients and ai'tifices 

 ■employed by these in suitable places upon which to deposit their 

 eggs, with a view not only to the safety of the eggs themselves, but 

 to the sufficiency of a food supply when the young reaches its perfect 

 ^tate. 



In concluding his paper, the writer said : — " I have myself, upon 

 many occasions, experimented with the dead bodies of frogs, and 

 even with fish — all these are excellent baits to attract the species of 

 our own Canadian burying insects — and I have enriched my collec- 

 tion with fine specimens many a time, after observing their habits 

 sufficiently to be convinced that it is for the object of a future supply 

 of food for the larva that the beetles undergo this severe labour," i. e., 

 the dragging and burying of the bodies of small animals. 



Remarks were made by the President, Drs. Workman and 

 O'Reilly, and Messrs. Macdougall, Murray, Notman, Living- 

 ston, VanderSmissen and Mowat. 



SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING. 



The Sixth Ordinary Meeting of the Session i884-'85, was 

 held on December 6th, 1884, the President in the Chair. 

 The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. 

 Donations and Exchanges received since last meeting : 



1. The Canadian Entomologist, Vol. XVI., No. 9, for September, 1884. 



2. Journal of the Franklin Institute for December, 1884. 



