1891. 1 253 



well to our British examples, find separated them in a fvatisfactovj manner. 

 Thomson's nomenclature, however, would he thought prove untenable, as the dis- 

 tinguished Swede dosoribed our common punctioollis as a new species under the 

 name of rectnnjulus. 



Mr. F. W. Frohawk exhibited a bleached specimen of Epinephele Jamra, 

 having the white fore-wing of a creamy-white, blending into pale smoky-brown at 

 the base ; also a long and varied series of Epinephele ITyperanthus, from the New 

 Forest and Dorking. The specimens from the former locality were considerably 

 darker and more strongly marked than those from the chalk. Amongst the speci- 

 mens was a variety of the female with large lanceolate markings on the under-side, 

 taken in the New Forest in July, 1890, and a female from Dorking with largo, 

 clearly defined, white-pupilled spots on the upper-side. Mr. Frohawk further 

 exhibited drawings of varieties of the pupee of E. Hyperanthus, and also a large 

 specimen of a variety of the female of Huchloe cardamines, bred from ova obtained 

 in South Cork, with the hind-wings of an ochreous-yellow colour. Coloured 

 drawings illustrating the life-history of the specimen in all its stages were also 

 exhibited. 



Mons. Serg(5 Alpheraky communicated a paper entitled, " On some cases of 

 Dimorphism among Paloearctic Lepidoptera." — H. Goss, Hon. Seo. 



ON OVirOSITION, AND THE OVIPOSITOE, IN CERTAIN 

 LEPIDOPTEEA. 



BY JOHN n. WOOD, M.B. 



{con eluded from page 215). 



There still rctnaiu the ])ocket-makeTB, Micropteri/£c and. Incurvaria. 

 They, or I should rather say Micropteryx (for I have not examined 

 Incurvaria) , is so exceptional in many ways that it requires a separate 

 notice. The abdominal wall shows the same solidity of structure as 

 in those we have just been considering, but the 7th segment is not 

 extra large, nor are its component plates of disproportionate length. 

 Perhaps the greatest anomalies are connected with the sheath (Fig. 12, 

 8 (sh.) ). In all insects we have hitherto met this structure is rigid, 

 but here it is a flexible tube that is rolled up* within the abdomen 

 when the ovipositor is withdrawn. Probably this peculiarity is to 

 enable the sheath more easily to enter and adapt itself to the pocket, 

 for it is self-evident that a soft expansile tube must be better fitted 

 for the purpose than a hard and unyielding one. Tet the sheath is 

 not altogether devoid of chitine, for a considerable part of its surface 



* Correctly speaking, it is invaginated rather than rolled up. The sheath is attached to the 

 ovipositor at the level of a line passing round just behin<l the points of the lower spurs, and at 

 the inner end is tied up short to the ti)i of the ~th ventral jihito, and more loosely to that of the 

 dcrsal iilatc. In the diagram, therefore, the sheath is shown not fully extended, the outer end 

 being still invagin ited. 



