18H9.] 239 



with the Entomological Society of London that " Sam " Stevens, as he was 

 familiarly called, was best known, and at the time of his death he was (with the 

 exception of Mr. W. B. Spence, the only remaining " Original Member") the oldest 

 Tellow in length of membership. He was elected on November 6th, 1837, and 

 until recently he rarely missed a meeting save during a period of long and serious 

 illness. From 1853 to 1873 he was Treasurer, and a Yice-President in 1885. He 

 took the warmest interest in the Society's welfare all through the many years in which 

 it was in financial low water, and we understand that by his Will he has shown that 

 he retained his desire for its success to the very last. He will scarcely be less missed 

 at the Entomological Club, which only a few years ago he practically saved from 

 extinction. He joined the Linnean Society in 1850. Stevens was scarcely a 

 scientific entomologist. He never put forward any claim to be considered such. 

 He delighted in the society of entomologists of every grade. He was an enthusi- 

 astic collector and a thoroughly good observer, not given to literary work, and from 

 this cause he never published much, though there are communications from his pen, 

 mostly consisting of short notes, scattered through the periodicals, etc., for nearly 

 60 years. In his retirement at Norwood he devoted himself much to horticulture, 

 and he also amassed a valuable series of water-colour drawings. He had a very 

 extensive collection of British Cohoptera, and a very valuable one of British Lepi- 

 doptera, exceptionally rich in rarities and in varieties and aberrations. We believe 

 these are likely to be dispersed. In private life Mr. Stevens was a genial com- 

 panion, utterly free from petty jealousies. He married somewhat late in life ; his 

 wife long predeceased him, and he has left no family. For details of the early 

 life of our late colleague we are indebted to his nephew, Mr. J. S. Stevens, F.E.S., 

 who for a good many years helped him in the agency business. 



Societies. 



Birmingham Entomological Society : August 2lst, 1899. — Mr. Gr. H. 

 Kenrick, F.E.S., in the Chair. 



Mr. Kenrick showed a drawer of Pierines from Thibet and other parts of 

 Eastern Asia ; it included a range of species which showed a transition from the 

 ordinary Pieris (brassicce) to Aporia cratagi, the intermediate stage being particu- 

 larly marked in Pieris (Mancipium) Deata ; also a specimen of Agrotls Ashworthii 

 bred from one of two larvae which were all he had been able to find as the result of 

 a whole day's work at Llangollen ; likewise a specimen of Acronycta menyanthidis 

 found at Edgbaston, which he said he believed to be the first specimen captured in 

 the Birmingliam district. Mr. K. C. Bradley, a specimen of Acronycta aim bred 

 from a larva found on mountain ash at Sutton. Mr. H. Willoughby Ellis said that 

 he had had a larva of the same species sent to him this week from Bromsgrove, 

 which was found on maple. Mr. Ellis, the following Coleoptera: — Scolytus de- 

 structor and multistriatus ; the latter species was found in some logs on the bank of 

 the canal at Kingswood, and had not previously been found in the Midlands ; as 

 there was good reason, however, to believe that the logs had been brought to the 

 spot where they were found from some other district, the beetles had probably been 

 brought into the neighbourhood with them. Also Epurcea deleta from Knowle, 7/99, 

 and a fine variable series of Strangalia annata from Haywood, Warwickshire, taken 



X 2 



