BRISTOL NATURALISTS SOCIETY. 
SECTIONAL MEETINGS. 
From the Bristol Daily Post of Jartuary -I'^rd, 13G5. 
Geological Section, Dec.^22ad, 18G4. — Mr. W. Sanders, 
president, in the chair. Mr. Keal read a paper on the Cam- 
brian and Cambro-Silurian strata. After giving an account 
of the progress of geological discovery for the last thirty 
years, in explaining the nature of the primary and transition 
rocks of the older geologists, the author stated that from 
the once confused and neglected transition formations had 
now been constituted the Cambrian and Silurian systems. 
The former, called " Bottom Rocks " by Murchison, was 
exhibited in four great buttresses in Wales and Siluria, the 
most important being that of Llanberis, which contained tlie 
great Carnarvonshire slate-quarries. The Longmynd group, 
in Shropshire, attained the extraordinary thickness of 21,000 
feet, and had hitherto yielded but few certain traces of life. 
The overlying Lingala zone, called in this paper Cambro- 
Silurian, was quite unknown till 1846. Its range in the 
Snowdon district was pointed out on a map, and it was 
shown to exist on the flanks of each of the four Cambrian 
elevations. The best locality for fossils from this prius 
ordial zone was in the neighbourhood of Tremadoc, a small 
collection from wkich was exhibited. 
Mr. W. W. Stoddart then proceeded to give the Pals&onto- 
logy of the earlier epochs of the earth's history, commencing 
with the recent discoveries of Sir W. Logan in the Lauren- 
tian rocks, and the unexpected discovery of gigantic Fora- 
menifera. The Cambrian fossils were then explained, and 
specimens or drawings of Oldbamia radiata, Qantiqua, 
Arenicolitesdidymees, A. sparsus,Dr. Kinahan'sHistioderma, 
and Salter's doubtful fossil, the Palseopyge Rtirasayi, were 
shown, and their nature discussed. The fossils of the Lin- 
gula period were then referred to, and illustrated by a 
beautiful and complete set of fossils, mostly very rare and of 
recent discovery : amonsr them were Angelina Sedgwichii, 
A. subarmatus, Niobe, Hymenocaris, Dictyonema, Theca, 
Anopolenus, Microdiscus, Holocephalina, and others. The 
author then expl^iined the nature of Trilobites, pointing out 
the structural differences between those of various formations, 
and concluded with a description of the Graptolites, exhi- 
biting a specimen of Diplograpsus pristis found in the 
Tremadoc strata, at Garth, hitherto not known to exist prior 
to the Llandello beds. A list of the hitherto discovered 
Fauna of the Lingula period was given, and a reference made 
to Messrs. Salter and Hicks's examination of the Lingula 
rocks, near St. David's. 
Entomological Section, Jan. 10, 1865,— Mr. S. ISarton, 
president, in the chair. Mr. Barton was re-elected presi- 
dent, and Mr. J. Barber secretary, for the ensuing vear. 
Mr. G. Harding read a paper on the Bychida3. These 
insects, from their doubtful analogies, occupied an anoma- 
lous position, being placed either with the Bombyces or 
Tineas, or as a distinct division. The males in the larger 
species had a bombyciform appearance, and the females in 
every case were apterous, and in some instances vermiform, 
the larvae being invariably case bearers. The Psychidse 
were, generall}', very local, only five species being at all 
widely diffused, while sixteen were known in Great Britain, 
and many undetermined. The three gentras into which they 
were divided were named Talaiparia, Psyche, and Solenobia. 
Mr. Harding related a remarkable instance of undoubted 
partherio-genesis in the case of Psyche nitidella, stating also, 
on the authority of a German entomologist, that no males 
were ever produced from the eggs of unimpregnated females, 
and that the fertility only continued for a few generations. 
Of the genus Solenobia, the sexes of only one species, S. 
