142 



M. sylliiis.— Two specimens. 



M. ines. — Two specimens. 



Mr. Barrett then read a paper on the genus Melananiia. 

 (See page 55). 



Proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Barrett for his instructive and 

 humourous account of his experiences with the genus, especially in 

 Sicily, Mr. H. Rowland- Brown said that he had not much difficulty 

 in deriving the whole group from one primitive ancestor. The 

 genus probably had its origin in northern Asia Minor, spreading 

 thence over the Balkan peninsula, and east and west along the 

 northern Mediterranean coasts, the Alps of Central Europe, etc. 

 He did not consider that the Algerian A. liicasi, Rbr., was the 

 result of an extension along the north African coast region, but 

 that it had probably found its way there via the Italian peninsula, 

 Sicily, and the now submerged " bridge " which connected Sicily 

 with the African mainland of to-day ; a probability heightened by 

 the extraordinary similarity of M. galathea, the fine form of Sicily, 

 and M. lucafii. Mr. Barrett's exhibits confirmed his own conclusions 

 that the two " species " are, in fact, identical ; at all events they 

 appeared to be superficially inseparable, and the breeding experiments 

 of Mr. H. Powell, of Hyeres, disclosed identical forms of larva and 

 pupa, varying only in size. He also regarded M. lachesis as a 

 species recently evolved from the galathea form, which spreads 

 westwards to the Bay of Biscay, and which at a certain point in the 

 Pyrenees - Orientales overlaps, and apparently produces by inter- 

 breeding a race intermediate between the two. The wonderful 

 lachesis-like aberration of JM. galathea, taken by Mr. Barrett in Kent 

 in 1875, exhibited that evening, suggested the close affinity of the 

 now separate species. 



Mr. Rowland-Brown also remarked that the brown coloured form 

 of M. galathea ( = var. fidvata) occurred not uncommonly in Cantal, 

 the mountains south of Auvergne, on volcanic formation ; while 

 the form with silvery-white ground colour he had taken at Le 

 Lioran, as well as on the roadside between Huntingdon and Abbots 

 Repton, in July, 1899. 



JANUARY 27th, 1916. 



Annual Meeting. 



Mr. R. Adkin, F.E.S., in the chair. 



The meeting was devoted to the business of receiving and adopt- 

 ing the Reports of the Council and Officers for the past year, and 



