PROCEEDINaS OF SOCIETIES. 
265 
also reminded tlie meeting tliat in April, 1874, Mr. Mclntire exhibited 
a slide of the proboscis of a moth which had a perforating organ 
appended to it, and which had been discovered amongst a collection of 
insects said to have come from West Africa. In ' Comptes Eendus ' 
for last August a paper appeared on Lepidoptera with perforating 
trunks, which were said to do much damage to oranges in tropical 
countries. They belonged to the genus Ophideres of Australia. As 
the paper was of considerable interest, he would send a translation of 
it to the Journal. The credit of being the first European observer of 
a moth with such a proboscis certainly belonged to Mr. Mclntire, and 
it would be very interesting if entomologists in this country would 
take the trouble to look through their specimens, and see if anything 
similar could be found amongst British Noctuidse. 
Mr. Mclntire, after looking at the drawing, believed it represented 
precisely the same object as the one he had shown, except that thei 
drawing gave a view of both sides of the proboscis, whereas his 
specimen only showed half. 
The President hoped that the subject would not drop, and quite 
agreed wita Mr. Slack that English entomologists should take the 
matter up. 
The thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Slack for his com- 
munication. 
Mr. Beck said he wished to present to the Society a specimen of 
the blood of the Amphiuma, which was remarkable for the great size 
of the blood-disks, being the largest known. The creature from which 
it was obtained was about 18 inches long, of a dark colour, something 
like an eel, with rudimentary legs. It was found in the Mississippi, 
and in times of flood they came up the gutters, and were said to bite 
and kill the negro children. There was, however, nothing in the 
anatomy of the creature to confirm this idea, and he had heard from 
naturalists that there was no foundation for the idea that these reptiles 
were venomous. He received his specimen from a friend in 'New 
Orleans. It seemed quite healthy on arrival here, and fed freely on 
worms, &c. After a time he cut off the tip of its tail, and got a quan- 
tity of blood from it, the same as mounted on the slide. After the 
creature was killed it was injected ; and on dissection it was found to 
contain a great quantity of eggs. Many of the vessels were found 
to present interesting peculiarities, owing to the large size of the 
blood-corpuscles which had to pass through them ; and he hoped at 
some future time to be able to present to the Society some slides of 
the ova, and also of the various organs. 
The microscope which he had brought for exhibition was one 
further step in the direction of carrying the microscope within the 
reach of those whose means were limited. He had taken such points 
of the cheap foreign microscopes which commended themselves ; he 
had also taken the best points of English instruments. The rack- 
and-pinion adjustment, though discarded by some foreign makers, 
had been retained. The stage was made particularly thin ; and the 
diaphragm had an extremely small hole in it, and this was of great 
value in physiological study. 
