Journal of Proceedings. xxi
removing the antennae of moths, and seeing whether they found their way
to sugar when thus mutilated. The object of this experiment was to test
the function of the antennae as organs of smell. Since the last meeting
he had met with a paper recently published by G. Hauser (Zeit, fur wiss.
Zool., vol. xxxiv., 1880, pp. 367—403), in which such experiments had
actually been conducted, and which went to support the views advocated.
In all the Orthoptera, Pseudo-Neuroptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and in
many Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, and Coleoptera, a strong nerve had been
discovered arising from the cerebral ganglion and passing into the
antennae. A terminal sensory organ with which the nerve-fibres are
connected, and accessory organs formed by the pits or cones filled with
fluid are described. The author gives detailed descriptions and figures of
these organs in the orthopteron, Calopterus Italicus. The function was
investigated by cutting off the antennae of insects which had previously
been tested by turpentine, carbolic acid, Ae. Insects thus mutilated
exhibited no repugnance to these odours, nor did they rush to food.
The Secretary read au extract from a letter received from Mr. B. M.
Christy respecting the occurrence of Cyclostoma elegans in Essex [Pro-
ceedings, ii., xi]. Mr. Christy had found the shells in considerable
abundance in a deposit of alluvium at Chignal St. James, near Chelms-
ford. Last year, and again this spring, he found several dead shells a
few inches below the surface in a railway-cutting close to Saffron Walden,
but has not found any living specimens yet. The occasion on which he
made his nearest approach to finding it living was one day at the end of
last August, when he happened upon plenty of the animals in a wood
called the "Rivy Wood,'' just on the other side of Linton, and also in
abundance beside the road right into the town. Now as Linton is built
on the very boundary between Cambridgeshire and Essex, he might fairly
say that he had found living Cyclostoma, elegans only a few hundred yards
outside our own county, and before the summer closed Mr. Christy was
hopeful of being enabled to report the occurrence of the animal in Essex.
Another shell he very much desired to find in Essex was Helix pomatia.
Mr. Meldola exhibited the larva of a species of Thera (either T. firmata
or T. obeliscata) the body of which was neatly and tightly packed with
cocoons of some species of ichneumon-fly. The flies had hatched out,
and he hoped at a future meeting to give the name of the species.
Mr. Harting presented to the Club a copy of his paper in the 'Popular
Science Review,' on the occurrence of the Roe Deer in England, and, in
doing so, he hoped the members would do all in their power to investigate
the characters and history of the Deer now existing in Epping Forest.
He pointed out that there were great differences between the horns of the
Epping specimens and the normal horns of the ordinary Fallow Deer;
and it would be of interest to endeavour to explain this modification, and
to ascertain whether these animals were the descendants of Deer imported
into the Forest, or whether they formed the remnant of the ancient breed
of Deer surviving from remote times.