45 



fasciata, in which the spots of the submarginal row are emphasised 

 sufficiently to join together into an irregular band; (8) ab. infnlvata, 

 a form of female occurring in Germany and the Alps, in which the 

 whole of the wings are suffused with a black-brown coloration, 

 only showing the spots somewhat darker, and a few light marginal 

 markings, or none at all. An aberration of the male from Vernayez 

 was exhibited in which all the spots on the underside are con- 

 siderably enlarged. 



Mr. Robert Adkin exhibited captured and bred specimens of 

 Dioryctria abietella from Forres. He said that although this was a 

 very generally distributed species wherever the Scots pine {Finns 

 sylvestris) grew, our knowledge of its complete life-history was very 

 imperfect. This was no doubt largely due to confusion between 

 this species and its near ally D. splendidella. In 1886 Duponchel 

 published a very full account of a larva under the name of D. 

 abietella, but it is quite evident that his larva was that of the other 

 species. D. abietella has frequently been bred from second year 

 'twigs or ripe cones of P. sijlcestris, frequently those that have been 

 tenanted by some other larva, such as Retinia resinella or R. buo- 

 liana, and there appears to be good reason to believe that it is only 

 in the spring of the year in which the imago emerges that the larva 

 takes to such positions. It is known that it completes its feeding 

 in them, apparently eating the inner bark, but it is unlikely that its 

 earlier life is passed there, and from such evidence as is available it 

 appears probable that the first part of its existence is passed in the 

 green cones of the pine. There is also some evidence that it leaves 

 them in autumn and hibernates in a cocoon on the ground or 

 among rubbish. He appealed to those who may be working among 

 the Scots pines in the autumn to collect any branches that may 

 have green cones that appear to contain larvte in them in the hope 

 of settling this much vexed question. 



Mr. A. A. W. Buckstone exhibited a long series of Vanesm io, bred 

 from larvfe taken near Reigate, Surrey in .lune last. With one 

 exception, all the two hundred or so butterflies which resulted from 

 these larvae are of the form in which the blue of the " eyes " on the 

 forewings is more or less broken up into spots and lines, and rather 

 inclines to purple, as compared with the greenish blue of specimens 

 from other localities. 



The majority have an extra blue spot on each hindwing=::£'^arto- 

 stista. Many of the remainder approach cyanostista to the extent of 

 possessing the dark patches of scales on which the extra blue spots 

 are seated, but the spots themselves are wanting. 



