Abstract
LONDON Zoological Society, June 20.—Dr. A. Günther, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The Secretary exhibited a series of the diurnal and nocturnal Lepidopterous insects bred in the Insect Houre in the Gardens during the present season, and called attention to several specimens of clear-winged Moths (Sesiidæ), a group of insects which had not before been exhibited in the Insect House. The cocoon of Cricula trifenestrata, together with the imago, was also exhibited.—Mr. W. A. Forbes made remarks on the presence of a rudimentary hallux in certain birds—the Albatrosses and two genera of Woodpeckers (Tiga and Picoides), commonly described as being three-toed, and exhibited preparations showing its condition in the birds in question.—Prof. Owen read the twenty-fifth of his series of memoirs on the Dinornis. The present communication gave a description of the head and feet, with their dried integuments, of an individual of a species supposed to be called Dinornis didina. These specimens had been obtained by Mr. H. L. Squires at Queenstown, South Island of New Zealand, and being parts of one individual tended to elucidate in an unlooked for degree the external characters of the Moa.—A second communication from Prof. Owen contained some observations on Trichina spiralis.—Prof. E. Ray Lankester gave a description of the valves of the heart of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, and compared them with those of man and the rabbit. Prof. Lankester also made some observations on the fossa ovalis of the Monotremes.—Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., read a description of the respiratory organs of Apteryx, which he showed did not differ fundamentally from the Avian type, and pointed out that neither of the structures that had been termed diaphragms in the Apteryx was really in correspondence with the Mammalian diaphragm.—Mr. W. A. Forbes read the sixth of his contributions to the anatomy of Passerine birds. In the present communication the author showed that Xenicus and Acanthisitta, hitherto considered to be allied to Certhia, Sitta, and Sittella, were really mesomyodian forms, most nearly allied perhaps to Pitta. The discovery of such low forms of Passerine birds in New Zealand was a fact of considerable interest, none of the allied groups being at all represented there at the present day.—A communication was read from Mr. Sylvanus Hanley on the shells of the genus Leplomya, to which was added -the descriptions of two new species.—Mr. Sclater read a note on Rüppell's Parrot, and showed that the more brightly-coloured individuals, ordinarily supposed to be the males of this parrot, were really the females.—A second paper from Mr. Sclater gave the description of two new species of the genus Synallaxis from the collection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman.—A communication was read from Prof. M. Watson containing an account of the muscular anatomy of Proteles as compared with that of Hyæna and Viverra.—Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper containing a description of a new species of Rat from China. The specimens upon which the author had founded the description had been sent by the Abbé Armand David to Mr. Milne-Edwards, of Paris, who had placed them in the hands of Mr. Thomas for identification. The author proposed to call this Rat Mus Edwardsi.—A communication was read from Mr. E. W. White, F.Z.S., of Buenos Ayres, in which he gave an account of the birds collected by him in the Argentine Republic.—Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read the descriptions of two apparently new species of Erythropygia, one from the Zambesi, the other from the Congo River, which he proposed to call respectively E. zambesiana and E. ruficauda.—A second paper by Mr. Sharpe contained the description of a new Flycatcher which had been obtained by the late Governor Ussher on the Gold Coast. The author proposed to call it Muscicapa ussheri, in acknowledgment of the services which its discoverer had rendered to ornithological science.—A communication was read from Mr. F., Moon on the Lepidoptera collected by the Rev. J. H. Hocking, chiefly in the Kangra District, N.Y. Himalaya. The present communication, being the second on the same collection, contained the descriptions of seven new genera and of forty-eight new species. An account of the transformation of a number of the species was also given.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 26, 262–264 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026262c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026262c0