20 [JannJiry, 



collections. He was one of the founders of the Feading Natural History Society, 

 and had been its President since 1882. His decease will be greatly mourned by a 

 large circle of friends, to whom his habitual courtesy and wide knowledge had much 

 endeared him. But nowhere can his loss be more deeply felt than at the town in 

 which he had so long resided, and by the Members of the Society over whose affairs 

 he had so long presided. He was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of 

 London in 1874, and of the Zoological Society in 1876. 



Societies. 



Birmingham Entomological Society : Ocioler I2th, 1896. — Mr. E. C. 

 Bradley in the Chair. 



Mr. Bradley exhibited a specimen of Antithesia salicella arranged in a natural 

 position of rest on an oak leaf, to show its striking resemblance to a bird excretion. 

 Mr. W. Harrison, six females of Lasius umbratus, taken in Edgbaston, only about 

 one and a half miles from tiie centre of Birmingham. This capture was all the 

 more remarkable as Mr. Martineau had never met with the species in the Midlands ; 

 and although it was not usually uncommon, yet he did not know of any other local 

 record for it. Also a specimen of Vanessa L-album which had been taken by Mr. 

 B. May, of Moseley, about the year 1877, at rest on a tree trunk at Henley, in 

 Arden. The capture was somewhat discredited at the time, but there does not seem 

 to be the slightest reason for doubting its genuineness. Mr. May has long since 

 given up Entomology and parted with all his collections, excepting this one specimen. 

 Mr. Harrison also showed a continental specimen for comparison ; that from Henley 

 was decidedly smaller and darker. Mr. A. H. Martineau, an imago and full 

 grown larva of Ammophila sabulusa obtained under the following singular conditions. 

 His brother w^atched the wasp engaged in burrowing, at Newquay ; after he had seen 

 it make its hole, fetch a larva and store it in the hole, lay an egg with it and then 

 fill up the hole, he caught the wasp and dug up the larva, which was a fat green 

 Noctua, and placed them together in a match box, where he left them and forgot 

 them. Some time afterwards, chancing to open the box, he found the wasp, but the 

 Hoctua larva had quite disappeared, and in its place was a full-grown wasp larva, 

 which had hatched and developed under these uncongenial conditions. — Colbran 

 J. Wainwright, Hon. Secretary. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society: November 

 13<A, 1896.— Dr. Sharp, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Fleet exhibited a copy of the first number of a work by Thomas Denny, 

 entitled, " Illustrations of Lepidopterous Insects found in the vicinity of Cambridge." 

 It contained several coloured plates, and was printed and published at Cambridge, 

 but bore no date. Also some specimens of Zygcena exulans from Braemar and 

 Noctua sohrina from Eannoch. Mr. R. Farren, some "Jumping Beans;" the 

 " Bean " is the seed of a Mexican euphorbiaceous plant inhabited by a Tortrix larva, 

 whose movements cause the seeds to roll about and even to make short jumps. 



