Societies and Academies

Abstract

CAPE TOWN. Royal Society of South Africa, Aug. 17.—A. J. Hesse: So new species of Curculionidæ from South Africa and South-West Africa. The total number of Hipporrhinus species has been increased from 146 to 152. The genus Solenorrhinus, which up to now was composed of only 1 species, has been enriched by 2 other new species, one of which is found on the Silver- leaf trees on Signal Hill. Two of the Curcu1ionide described are found in such widely separated areas as Zuiuiand and South-West Africa and Transvaal and South-West Africa.—P. R. v. d. R. Copeman: Studies in the growth of grapes, Part 4: The initial changes in acidity. During the initial stages of growth of the berry, the changes in acidity of the juice are autocatalytic.—F. Dixey: The Dinosaur Beds of Lake Nyasa. A series of sediments occurring along the north-western shores of Lake Nyasa have yielded a number of interesting Dinosaur remains which are allied to the better-known deposits of Tendaguru. The beds consist principally of a great thickness of friable sandstones, sandy mans, and clays. They lie unconformably on older rocks which are affected by post-Karroo faults; and are themselves faulted and overlain by more recent deposits of the Nyasa trough.—S. H. Haughton: On some reptilian remains from the Dinosaur Beds of Lake Nyasa. It has been possible to identify two forms specifically; and many other bones can definitely be assigned to the Sauropoda. The forms named are Platycheloide nyasœ gen. et. sp. n., the first recorded African Mesozoic testudinate, and Gigantosaurus dixeyi sp. n., a sauropod allied to a form described from Tendaguru.—D. Thoday and M. A. Pocock: On a Myosurus from South Africa, with some notes on Marsilia macrocarpa. The discovery is recorded of a species of Myosurus, a genus new to South Africa. It is identified provisionally, in the absence of material with ripe achenes, as Myosurus Minimos.