186 



Mr. E, W. Robinson said that, on the Indian railways, the plan was to make the 

 sleepers of kyanized limber, i.e. limber to which a solution of creosote had been 

 applied ; it was, however, found insufficient merely to dip the wood or coat it over 

 with the solution, but the whole block must be impregnated with the creosote, which 

 was forced through the timber by the application of hydraulic pressure. 



Mr, Bates said that the houses on the banks of the Amazon were not much 

 infested with white ants, which he attributed, in a great measure, to the use of a very 

 hard wood, called Acapu : it was the habit to rest store-boxes, &c., on sleepers or 

 cylindrical pieces of that wood, which in many cases afforded sufficient protection. 

 When the white ants had effected an entry into the walls (which in the Amazon 

 country were principally composed of upright posts, with cross laths, filled up with 

 mud, and covered with lime or cement), he had found it an unfailing remedy to fill 

 up the holes in the walls with arsenical soap; pure oxide of arsenic might be used, 

 but that of course was attended with danger: the arsenical soap was cheap, and 

 might be diluted with water, and boxes, &(!., washed over with the solution. The 

 most effective method would doubtless be to completely saturate and poison the 

 timber, as General Hearsey had mentioned with respect to the quick-lime. 



A conversation subsequently took place on the habits of the Termites, the principal 

 speakers being Gen. Hearsey, Mr. Bates and Prof. Westwood. In the course of the 

 discussion Mr. Bates expressed (though with some hesitation) an opinion that the 

 copulation of white ants occurs on the surface of the earth, and not, as was commonly 

 supposed, in mid-air. 



Mr. Newman exhibited a series of coloured drawings, life-size and magnified, of 

 larvae of the genus Anticlea, admirably executed by Mr. Buckler. 



Captain Cox also exhibited a large number of drawings of Lepidopterous larvae, 

 exquisitely coloured by Mrs. Charles Cox: he also read the following: — 



Notes on collecting Lepidopterous Larvae. 



" I have now for some years been collecting larvae of Lepidoplera for Mrs. Charles 

 Cox to colour, and I may mention that in our neighbourhood there has been almost 

 an entire failure, even of the most common kinds, during the past two years, so that 

 we have done comparatively little. 



" To those unacquainted with larvsB it may appear an easy matter to collect them 

 and recognize their forms ; but so much do many larvae resemble each other that 

 experience shows that.it requires a large amount of study and constant practice to be 

 able only approximately to say to what kind of moth such and such a larva belongs. 

 We have found that no hitherto-known scientific arrangement assisted us in 

 deciphering rapidly, after a hard day's or night's beating and collecting in a favourable 

 season, the various captures made ; so we have been obliged to have recourse to a con- 

 ventional system, which has assisted us materially. 



" We divide all known larvae into three great classes: the Hairy or Spined, the 

 Smooth-skinned, and the Looper. 



"The Hairy or Spined we subdivide into those thickly covered, and those mode- 

 rately covered or tufted; (we do not take account when the hair is only sparsely seen). 

 Each of these subdivisions is again subdivided into the colours, brown or reddish, 

 black or very dark, and yellow, green or gray. 



" The Smooth-skinned are divided into those with a caudal spike, and those without ; 



