51 
MICROSCOPICAL SECTION. 
November 21st, 1864. 
Joseph Sidebotham, Esq., President of the Section, in 
the Chair. 
Mr. Watson exhibited and presented to the Section a 
dozen slides showing the battledore scales of several species of 
Polyommatus or Lycaena ; he also illustrated the subject by 
drawings of the scales made by Mr. Sidebotham. He showed 
that the scale of Baeticus has manifestly no relation to the 
others, though this insect is placed at the head of the list 
of the genus Polyommatus by Boisdudal, H. Schaeffer, Dr. 
O. Standinger, and W. F. Kirby. Many lepidopterists have 
thought that it is a Thecla, and he proposed to examine 
various species of the genus Thecla and to report the result. 
A letter from Captain Mitchell, of Madras, was read. 
He stated that he had examined fresh but full grown cotton 
treated with Mr. O’Neill’s strong and weak solutions of cop- 
per,, and had failed to detect any spiral fibres. He communi- 
cated some observations on a Lepidopterous larva, probably 
that described by Mr. Saunders in vol. iii. of the Transactions 
of the Entomological Society, which attacks the cotton pod. 
Wherever it was found, the cotton was entirely destroyed. 
The Secretary read Mr. Edwards’s directions for collect- 
ing Diatomacese. 
