8 
uiembers, and I hope my successor will be able to report more 
favourably at the termination of bis year of office. 
The first of the two lectures given by the Eev. J. Bates, con- 
sisted of his observations on the planet Mars, which during the 
earlier portion of last year, was in a more than usually favourable 
position for observation. The reverend gentleman was listened to 
with much interest by the members present, and a discussion took 
place on the probable physical condition of the planet as deduced 
from his telescopic appearance. The second lecture consisted of a 
brief but lucid description of the methods about to be used for the 
observation of the forthcoming Transit of Venus : both lectures 
were illustrated by diagrams. Although these subjects belong 
rather to physical than biological science, they were listened to 
with much interest. 
We are indebted to Mr. Wheeler for a paper on Breeding Lepi- 
doptera in confinement. This paper was of perhaps more than 
usual interest, containing as it does many natural history facts. 
The breeding and rearing these forms in confinement, seems to me 
to be of much more importance than mere collecting, as it affords 
ampler means of studying the amount of variation and the changes 
produced by external conditions than the capture of a large number 
of specimens in the ordinary manner. As this paper will be pub- 
lished in the current part of our transactions, I will not occupy 
your time by a more detailed description of its contents. 
Mr. Bridgman read a shoi-t paper on the nesting of a British bee 
(Prosopis,) formerly supposed to be parasitic. I also find that he 
has given a second and more elaborate paper on “ British Bees,” 
describing their classification, habits, and physical structure. This 
class of insects seems to have received but little attention from 
naturalists, and the popular knowledge of them is probably con- 
fined to some two or three species ; I am therefore glad to find that 
Mr. Bridgman is still assiduously studying them. 
Mr. Geldart has given us a short but able resume of Sir John 
Lubbock’s valuable monagraph of Colerabela and Thysanura, in 
which he (Mr. Geldart) called the attention of the members to the 
fact that the author agrees with Brauer, that the genus Campodea 
