194 ON FOSSIL ROSTRAL TEETH OF SAW- FISHES. 



April 9th, 1918. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., "Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the following Report on the Additions 

 made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of March 

 1918 : — 



The registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the 

 month of March were 31 in number. Of these 23 were acquired 

 by presentation, 6 were received on deposit, 1 by purchase, and 

 1 in exchange. 



The number of departures during the same period, by death 

 and removals, was 93. 



Amongst the additions special attention may be directed 



to :— 



1 Jungle-Cat [Felts chaus) § > from India, purchased on 

 March 9th. 



2 Hog-Deer (Axis ]Jorcinus), £ > from India, deposited on 

 March 5th. 



1 King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica), from South Georgia, 

 received in exchange on March 19th. 



Miss L. E. Cheesman, Assistant Curator of Insects, exhibited 

 specimens of an East-African homopterous insect, Ityrcea nigro- 

 cincta, sent by the Curator of the Museum at Nairobe. 



Special interest is attached to these insects by reason of their 

 habit of clustering in colonies on a plant- stem in imitation of the 

 inflorescence. There is a coloured form and a green form of 

 the adult insect, and when the latter are found clustering on the 

 apex of the flower-spike, they bear an extraordinary resemblance 

 to unopened buds. 



An interesting account of a similar species was published by 

 Dr. Gregory in his book ' The Great Rift Valley,' with a sketch 

 of the insects. They have also been figured in a paper read by 

 Mr. Hinde before the Entomological Society, in 1902. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward, V.P.Z.S., exhibited fossil rostral 

 teeth of Eopristis and Pristis, and referred to the progressive 

 changes in the rostral teeth of the Pristidse, or saw-fishes, during 

 geological time. In the Cretaceous genus, Sclerorhynchus, these 

 teeth only differ from the ordinary shagreen in their enlargement 

 and the elongation of their apical portion. Their pulp-cavity is 

 restricted to the basal half, and the distal portion is traversed by 

 several very irregular large vascular canals, mainly longitudinal 

 in direction. In the genus Eopristis, not known later than the 



