454 



Nominations. — Francis Durward, chemist, Currie Street, 

 and James Hendry, chemist, Currie Street, as Fellows. 



Memoirs. — The Editor announced the issue in December, 

 1912, of Part 4, completing Vol. II. of the Society's Memoirs. 



Late J. W. Mellor. — Resolved "That this society notes 

 with regret the death of Mr. J. W. Mellor, expresses its 

 sympathy with his family in their loss, and hereby places on 

 record its appreciation of the long and valuable service ren- 

 dered to science by that gentleman in connection with the 

 Field Naturalists' Section of the Society." 



Exhibits. — Mr. J. G. O. Tepper, F.L.S., exhibited 

 photograph of Yucca alvifolia. This plant was fertilized by 

 a moth about half an inch long, having a long ovipositor 

 furnished with a saw, and maxillae incurved and barbed so as 

 to act as claspers. The insect collected pollen from the male 

 flower with, its claspers, deposited its ^gg deep in the stigma 

 of the female flower, and filled up the hole with the pollen. 

 He grew these plants for seventeen years before he obtained 

 fruit. The question was how fertilization was effected in this 

 case, no moth specialized as above described being known in 

 South Australia. Also seeds of Stapelia huffonia, which, 

 nearly a year after the disappearance of the male flower, pro- 

 duced two feelers about 6 in. long with a cloud of small seeds 

 with white petals, the seeds being scattered by the wind. 

 Mr. A. M. Lea, F.E.S., exhibited an assortment of insects, 

 including (1) several reared from the abdomen of a large 

 moth; (2) large fish-killing bug from North Australia; (3) two 

 beetles (Lcpto'ps colossus) which were seriously damaging the 

 apple orchards of Mount Lofty, by grooves cut in the roots, 

 by the larvge; (4) flies and fleas reared from the nest of a 

 robin; (5) a bot-fly from the throat of a hill kangaroo; (6) 

 ground nests, said to be formed by a cricket, one of which, 

 found with them, was also shown. Mr. Lea, on account of 

 a fibrous membrane at the base of the nest, thought that the 

 builder was a spider, but Dr. Pulleine and Dr. Verco pro- 

 nounced the membrane to be hardened mucilage, and not 

 spiders' web. Mr. How chin, F.G.S., exhibited fragments 

 of a subfossil emu's Qgg, obtained by Mr. A. E. Warman 

 from a railway cutting at Wolseley, and forwarded by him 

 to the South Australian Museum. The fragments were coated 

 with travertine limestone, but a microscopical section showed 

 them to possess the characteristic structure of the emu egg- 

 shell, as shown by a section of a recent shell. Mr. E. R. 

 Stanley exhibited a series of rocks from the oil-bearing strata 

 of New Guinea. Some of the fossils therein were identical 

 with those found in the oil beds of Sumatra. Mud volcanoes 

 existed in the district, and furnished gas and globules of 



