262 [November, 



been used by a Mason wasp and a leaf-cutting bee respectively to make their nests 

 in ; the Psychid cocoons were tubular, about 4 in. long and ^ in. thick, the females 

 being largest, and it appeared that the female moths never leave the cocoon, for one 

 of them was found hardly free from the large chrysalis, embedded in soft scales, and 

 almost maggot-like in appearance. Although the larvae spend a large part of their 

 life in these cocoons, yet a large proportion were found to have been killed by 

 pai'asites. Mr. Bedford, three varieties of E. hyperanthiis, taken near Brockenhurst 

 at the end of June ; in the first a female belonging to the " lanceolate " type, all 

 the parts of each ocellus were correspondingly enlarged, the central pupil in some 

 being considerably elongated ; in the second, a male, the aberration affected the fore- 

 wings only, and consisted in a tendency for the yellow band of each ocellus to spread 

 over the surface of the wing, forming irregular and quite asymmetrical blotches, the 

 rest of the ocellus being quite normal ; the third case was that of a male in which 

 the right hind-wing only was abnormal, both the black and yellow bands of all the 

 ocelli, except that nearest to the anal angle, being so much enlarged as to run into 

 one another, forming a black streak surrounded by yellow covering the greater part 

 of the wing and traversed by the wing rays, which were dusted over with yellow 

 scales, the pupils of three of the ocelli were quite normal, that of the fourth (next 

 to the costal margin) was barely visible. — L. Doncastee, Hon. Secretary. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society: 

 September 9tk, 1897.— Mr. R. Adkin, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Spindler exhibited a remarkable var. of Epinephele Tithonus, in which the 

 whole of the black mai'kings were absent, while the fulvous colour was of the normal 

 depth. It was taken at Luggershall, Sussex. Mr. South, several unusually dark 

 Scotch forms of Spilosoma menthrasti, being second generation descendants of Moray 

 parents. Mr. Turner, an unusually grey specimen of Mamestra abjecta, taken in 

 the Greenwich marshes ; a small red form of Agrotis tritici from Woolmer Forest, 

 Hants ; series of under-sides of Enodia hyperanthus from Carlisle and Chattenden, 

 to show the contrast in the ground colour, the former being of a grey appearance, 

 while the latter were deep and rich ; a larva of Heterogenea limacodes from Wester- 

 ham ; and larvae of Acidalia immorata from Alpine ova. He remarked upon the 

 undoubted Acidalia-Vike habits and appearance, and said that they fed readily upon 

 knotgrass. Mr. West, of Greenwich, specimens of the local Hemipteron, Dictynota 

 fuliginosa, taken on broom at Plumstead. Mr. Adkin, series of Satyrus Semele, 

 from Eastbourne and Bouniemouth,for comparison, with examples set to show their 

 natural resting positions on the ground. Mr. Tutt remarked that allied continental 

 species had precisely the same habits. Mr. Lucas, specimens and drawings of the 

 scarce dragon-fly, Agrion merciiriale, which he had taken in the New Forest. Mr. 

 Dennis, under the microscope, ova of both Polyommatus Corydon and Plehius .Kgon, 

 the former of which had not yet been described. Mr. Tutt, a cabinet drawer con- 

 taining his series of Erebia Nerine and its near allies, together with photographs of 

 the famous -Mendelstrasse, in illustration of his paper, which he then read, entitled, 

 " A gregarious butterfly, Erebia Nerine : a reminiscence of the Mendelstrasse, with 

 notes on the Lepidoptera of the serpents of the Mendelstrasse." 



