SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 439 



had been very rarely visited by botanical collectors, and which were believed 

 to be undescribed. 



A revisionary Monograph of the New Zealand Holothurians, by Prof. 

 A. Dendy, D. Sc, F.L.S., of Christchurch, N.Z., was read. New species 

 of the genera Cucumaria, Colochirus, and Psolus were described. Echino- 

 cyamus alba (Hutton) and Thyone brevidentis (Hutton) were shown to be 

 referable to Colochirus. Thyone caudata (Hutton) and Thyonidium ru- 

 gosum (Theel) were shown to be identical with Thyone [Pentadactyla] longi- 

 dentis (Hutton), and Stichopus sordidus (Theel) was shown to be Holothuria 

 mollis (Hutton), which is in reality a Stichopus. Seventeen species were 

 in all admitted, four being doubtful, and four provided with overlapping 

 plates. The general anatomy was described wherever desirable. The 

 ccelomic fluid of Candina coriacea was shown to contain two distinct types 

 of colourless corpuscles, and in addition numerous brownish red corpuscles, 

 akin to those observed by Howell in a Thyonella. A " dichotomously 

 foliaceous " order of spicule, apparently of the type recorded by Bell for 

 Cucumaria inconspicua, was found to exist in various degrees of modifica- 

 tion in Stichopus mollis ; and details were given of the growth processes of 

 the "wheel" in Chirodota dunedinensis, having interesting bearings upon 

 the observations of Ludwig, Chun, Kishinouye, and others. 



The Rev. J. Whitmee made some remarks on the Trepang fishery in 

 Samoa, where several edible species of Holothurians are gathered and pre- 

 pared for the market, and called attention to what he conceived to be a 

 little-known fact, that a small fish of the genus Fierasfer lives parasitically 

 in the body of the Holothurian. Some further account of the fish was 

 given by the President. 



Entomological Society of London. 



October 21s£, 1896.— Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Mr. J. J. Walker, R.N., exhibited a specimen of Emus hirtus, L., taken 

 at Gore Court Park, Sittingbourne, Kent, on May 30th last. 



Mr. W. B. Spence sent, from Florence, for exhibition, some specimens 

 of a cricket, Gryllus campestris, in small wire cages, which he stated were, in 

 accordance with an ancient custom, sold by the Italians on Ascension-day. 



Mr. F. Enock exhibited a specimen of the curious aquatic Hy meuopteron 

 Prestwichia aquatica, female, which Sir John Lubbock first captured in 

 1862, but which had not been recorded since that date until its rediscovery 

 in May, 1896. Mr. Enock said that the male had remained unknown until 

 June last, when he captured several swimming about in a pond at Epping, 

 The male was micropterous, and, like the female, used its legs for propelling 

 itself through the water. 



Mr. Tutt exhibited a beautiful aberration of Tephrosia bistortata [crepus- 

 cularia), in which the ochreous ground colour was much intensified, and the 



