( ii ) 
entitled, " Eecherches pour servir a I'histoire des Insectes 
Fossiles des Temps Primaires," stating that this work was 
the most valuable contribution ever made to a knowledge of 
fossil insects. The very numerous specimens described in 
this monograph were obtained from surface coal- workings at 
Commentry in France. Nearly half the treatise was occupied 
with an elaborate account of the venation of Orthoptera, 
Neuroptera, and Fulgoridse, to which all the fossil species 
found had been assigned by M. Brongniart. Among the 
forms described were an archaic dragon-fly with an expanse 
of 28 in., insects allied to the Ejyhemeridoi with rudimentary 
prothoracic wings, and others with persistent gill-leaflets in 
the imago stage. Mr. Blandford said he thought that these 
fossils afforded strong support to Gegenbaur's theory of the 
origin of insect wings. Another point brought forward by 
M. Brongniart was that, in certain fully- winged species, the 
upper and lower wing-membranes were not united, but were 
separated, as in the nymph stage. Mr. Blandford suggested 
that it was possible that the wings were acquired in these 
early forms before the insect had completed its full growth, 
and that the sub -imago stage of Ei:)liemeridcE was a ' true 
relic of a period when one or more moults took place after 
the animal was capable of flight. 
Mr. Blandford also called attention to figures of pupae of 
species of Spalgis (Lycaenidse), in the Journal of the Bombay 
Natural History Society. A discussion followed, in which 
Mr. Hampson and Mr. McLachlan took part. 
Canon Fowler exhibited, on behalf of Mr. C. A. Myers, an 
unusually fine specimen of Sphcei-ia robertsi, growing from the 
prothorax of an underground larva of an Hepialus, supposed 
to be H. virescens, from New Zealand. Mr. McLachlan said 
that there was a doubt whether the caterpillar should be 
referred to this species. 
Mr. Blandford stated that the French Government had 
set aside a section of the Pasteur Institute at Paris for the 
study of entomophagous fungi. 
Papers read. 
Professor L. C. Miall, F.R.S., and Mr. N. Walker, com- 
municated a paper entitled, On the Life-history of Pericoma 
