SYDNEY. Linnean Society of New South Wales, October 27.— Mr. J. J. Fletcher, president, in the chair.—E. W. Ferguson and G. F. Hill: Notes on Australian Tabanidæ. The paper deals mainly with synonymy, the results being given of comparison of specimens with the types of Australian Tabanidae in the British Museum and in the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. Seventeen species belonging to five genera are dealt with, one species being described as new.—Dr. A. J. Turner: Studies in Australian Lepidoptera: Liparidae. In Australia the family Liparidae is represented by sixty species belonging to eighteen genera, of which two genera and ten species are described as new in this paper.—G. A. Waterhouse: Descriptions of new forms of butterflies from the South Pacific. One species from Fiji and six subspecies from Fiji (three), Lord Howe Island (two), and the New Hebrides (one) are described as new.—Eleanor E. Chase: A new avian trematode. A species of Holostomum is described as new. The specimens described were obtained from a white-fronted heron, Notophoyx novae-hollandiae, at Terrigal, N.S.W.—Dr. J. M. Petrie: Cyanogenesis in plants. Part iv.: The hydrocyanic acid of Heterodendron, a fodder-plant of New South Wales. The foliage of Heterodendron oleae-folia was much used for cattle-feeding during the drought. Chemical examination of the leaves shows tiiem to contain a cvanogenetic glucoside yielding, when hvdrolysed, 0328 per cent, of hydrocyanic acid. The plant is therefore one of the most poisonous cyanogenetic plants known, yielding more than twice as much hydrocyanic acid, as bitter almonds. One ounce of the air-dried leaves forms a lethal amount for one sheep. The leaves are invariably found to be deficient in enzyme, and require the addition of emulsin in the estimation to bring about the complete decomposition, of the glucoside.—Vera Irwin-Smith: Studies in life-histories of Australian Diptera Brachv-cera. Part i.: Stratiomyiidæ. No. 1: Metoponia rubriceps, Macquart. Very little work has been done in any part of the world on the earlv stages of the Brachycera; many soil-inhabiting, dipterous larvae, mostly belonging to the Brachycera, have been collected and reared through to the imago or to the pupal stage. The present paper is the first of a series dealing with this work, and gives a detailed account of the life-historv of Metoponia rubriceps, Macquart. It is also accompanied by a historical review of published accounts of early stages of the Stratiomyiidae, a list of the species the earlier stages of which have been observed, and a comprehensive bibliography.