SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SOCIETIES. 
Scientific and Technical Societies. 
Abstract of Proceedings. 
LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
At the May meeting (Mr. J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc., President, in the chair), 
the following papers were read :— 
1. Report on the Neuropteroid Insects of the Hot Springs Region, New 
Zealand, in relation to thé problem of trout food. By R:. J. Tillyard, M.A., 
D.Sc., F.L.S., F.E.S., Linnean Macleay Fellow of the Society in Zoology. 
Examination of the contents of trout-stomachs showed that the most abundant 
foods were the Green Manuka-Beetle, Pyronota festiva, the larve of Caddis-flies 
of the family Leptoceridw, and the small mollusc, Potamopyrgus sp. Less abun- 
dant were larve of Dragonflies, Mayflies, Stoneflies, other families of Caddis-flies,, 
&e, Since the introduction of the trout the insect fauna of the region has been 
very greatly reduced, the percentage reduction being estimated as follows:— 
Mayflies, over 50; Stoneflies, 80; and Caddis-flies, 90, In the vicinity of a few 
streams to which the trout have no access, insects are still comparatively very 
abundant. Suggestions for improving the position are made along two lines:— 
(i) improvement of the food supply, (ii) reduction in the number of trout. 
2. The Panorpoid Complex. Additions to Part 3. By R. J. Tillyard, M.A., 
D.Se., F.L.S., F.E.S., Linnean Macleay Fellow of the Society in Zoology. 
Additional evidence is brought forward from the’study of the pupal tracheation 
of Morova (Siculodes) subfasciata (Walk.) to support the conclusion that it is 
unlikely that any existing Heteroneurous type represents even a close approxi- 
mation to the original archetype of the Rhopalocera. 
Nores AND Exurits. 
Mr. F. H. Taylor exhibited specimens of Lucilia fucina Walker, Neopollenia 
papua Walk.—hboth recorded for the first time from Australia, the former being 
originally described from South Africa, the latter from Papua. I. fucina is 
one of the sheep-maggot flies in Queensland, and probably in other States, and 
seems to have been confused with L. sericata-——Ohrysomyia rufifacies (Macq.), 
C. varipes (Macq.), and Ophyra analis Macq., also sheep pests, C. dua Esch., 
Lucilia solaia Walk., Pyrellia naronea Walk., and Chaetodacus tryoni (Frogg.), 
a fruit fly which breeds in grenadillas in North Queensland; also Binellia 
tayloriana Bezzi and Euprosopia punctifacies Bezzi. 
Mr. E. Cheel exhibited specimens taken in October last, from a cultivated plant 
of aso-called double flowering peach-tree (Prunus persica var. dianthi flora) , show- 
ing, in addition to the ordinary flowers with an increased number of sepals and 
corresponding number of petals and single pistils, quite a number of flowers 
with two, three, and four carpels distinct from the calyx and from each other in 
the one flower. An illustration, together with a note, is published by M. J. 
Berkeley in the Gardener's Chronicle for 1852, p. 452, of a similar occurrence 
in a “Golden Drop Plum,” but the number of carpels according to-the drawing 
was usually two, or occasionally three, in the one flower. Kerner and Oliver. 
(vol. ii, p- 548) refer to this peculiar growth under the term “ Antholysis,” 
whilst Berkeley’s drawing and note is quoted by Masters (Teratology, p. 365, 
fig. 186), under the term Polyphylly of the flower. Worsdell (The Principles 
of Plant Teratology, vol. 2, p. 93, 1916) mentions that in double flowers of the 
cherry, two carpels are almost invariably present. Daydon Jackson defines the 
term “ Antholysis ” as a loosening or a retrograde metamorphosis of a’ flower. 
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