SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 155 



Cicadinae— from Ceylon, having what appeared to be a head at its caudal 

 extremity. He pointed out that the larva had caudal appendages which 

 might be mistaken for hairy antennae, and pigment spots resembling eyes 

 on the antepenultimate segment of the body. The insect walked either 

 backwards or forwards, and when first seen looked like a beetle of some 

 kind, the caudal extremity representing the head. 



Mons. Louis Peringuey contributed a paper entitled " Descriptions of 

 New Species of South African Coleoptera, chiefly from Zambesia." 



Dr. Sharp read a paper, by Professor Williston, " On the Diptera of 

 St. Vincent, West Indies. Part I." 



March ISth. — Prof. Raphael Meldola, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Mr. T. A. Gerald Strickland was elected a Fellow. 



Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited drawings of varieties of British Lepido- 

 ptera in the collection of Mr. S. J. Capper, of Huyton Park, Liverpool. 

 They comprised 389 figures, representing 139 species, of which 33 were 

 butterflies and 50 moths. Herr Jacoby enquired whether any record had 

 been kept of the localities in which these varieties had been caught, or of 

 the conditions under which they had been bred. Mr. Barrett in reply 

 stated that none of the varieties exhibited had been obtained by breeding 

 under artificial conditions for the purposes of experiment, but they were all 

 natural varieties. 



Mr. J. J. Walker, B.N., exhibited a specimen of Procas armillalus, 

 taken on Durland Hill, near Chatham. 



Herr Jacoby exhibited a specimen of Loxoprosopus ceramboides, Guer., 

 from Brazil. 



Mr. E. E. Green exhibited the eggs of some species of Locustida 

 extracted from the stem of a young cinchona tree at Punduloya, Ceylon. 

 The species of the parent insect was undetermined ; it was possibly either 

 a Cymatomera or a Cyrtophyllus, both of which possess large sabre-shaped 

 ovipositors. A slit half inch deep and more than two inches long had 

 been cut into the hard wood, in which the eggs had been symmetrically 

 deposited, edge to edge, with the coloured part inwards. The greater part 

 of each egg was of fine texture and coloured green ; but at the extremity 

 from which the young insect would make its exit the egg shell was soft, 

 pliant, and beautifully reticulated. The row of flattened green eggs lying 

 side by side resemble an acacia leaf, but as they are concealed within the 

 stem the resemblance was apparently without motive. It seemed curious 

 that as the eggs were embeddtd they should be brightly coloured. 



Mr. Green read a short paper entitled " Notes on Dyscritina longisetosa, 

 Westw." He remarked that drawings of the species had been exhibited 

 by him at a recent meeting of the Society. Dr. Sharp could not agree 

 with Mr. Green in regarding it as belonging to the Forficulida. He 



