Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/59

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
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common for the left side to belong to the female sex, and that in fourteen out of twenty-three instances of perfect hermaphrodites cited by Burmeister this was stated to be the case, and only in nine instances out of the twentythree did the female characters and organs appear on the right side. Mr. J. W. Douglas exhibited the following insects:—

1. An example of Polyphylla Fullo, Linn., which flew on to a steam vessel at Antwerp in August, and was thus brought to London.

2. A specimen of Tettigometra impressopunctata, Duf. (a rare species, and the only representative of the genus in Britain), which was taken casually, on October 1st, at Sanderstead Downs, this being the fourth recorded locality in this country.

3. An example of Typhlocyba debilis, Doug., taken at the same time and place as the last-mentioned; also T. tenerrima, H.-Schf., its nearest ally, to show the difference of the species.

Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited a larva of Pieris rapa, which had been attacked by Microgaster. (See Proc. Ent. Soc, July 5th, 1875, and December 6th, 1876.)

Prof. Westwood read notes on new exotic lamellicorn Coleoptera, and exhibited specimens of Calomelopus Nyassæ and Amblyodus Nicaraguæ, also drawings of tbese beetles and of Valgus furcifer, Sumatra; Nicagus obscurus, North America; Cyclidius velutinus; Cremastocheilus crassipes, California; and Pantodinus Klugii, Guatemala.

Prof. Westwood, àpropos of Mr. Wood-Mason's discovery of stridulating apparatus in scorpions, announced to the Society at the September meeting, called the attention of the Society to a letter in 'Nature' (Nov. 1st, 1877, p. 11), from Mr. J. Saville Kent, on a sound-producing crustacean.

Mr. Wood-Mason remarked that structures in Crustacea, some of which certainly, and all of which probably, are for the production of sounds, were first brought to notice by Hoffmann,—in V. der Decken's 'Reisen in OstAfrica (Crustaceen)'—but had been independently observed by himself in a number of species during his dredging excursion to the Andaman Islands in 1872. They were paired organs, as in Scorpions, the Mygale, and the Phasma to be brought to notice that night—that is to say, organs working perfectly independently of each other were on each side of the body.

Mr. Wood-Mason then announced the discovery of stridulating organs in Phasmidm, in a species of Pterinoxylus, and in illustration of his remarks exhibited an impression of Westwood's plate of Serville's species, P. difformipes. Here, as in Crustacea and some other Arthropods, an apparatus working perfectly independently of its fellow was developed on each side of the body. The rough prominent basal portion of the costal nervure of the wings formed the rasp, in connection with which was developed a large oval "speculum," "talc-like spot," or "mirror." The rasps were scraped by the sharp and hard front edges of the tegmina, the dome-like form of which