240 r October, 1909. 



August 2Wi, 1909.— The President in the Chair. 



Mr. South exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Esson, a Noctuid moth taken in Aber- 

 deen, probably not only new to science, but representative of a well-marked new 

 genus ; he also exhibited a specimen of Aglais urticas bred from a larva fed solely 

 on hop. Dr. Chapman, a most aberrant form of Parasemia plantaginis taken at 

 Ferpecle, Val d'Herens, Switzerland, in which the black mai'kings were reduced to 

 little more than a few faint brownish clouds on pale orange fore-wings and darker 

 orange hind-wings. Mr. West, Greenwich, specimens of the local Homopteron, Para- 

 mesux nervosus, from Gravesend, taken among rushes. Mr. Newman, nearly full-fed 

 larvae of Eupithecia extensaria, reared ah ouo on garden Artemisia ; he also showed 

 a larva of Stauropus fagi, and pointed out its resemblance to a dead and distorted 

 leaf of beech. — Hy. J. Turner, Hon. Secretary. 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF PHORA. 

 BY -JOHN H. WOOD, M.B. 



{Continued from page 195). 



Small as this group is in comparison with those that have 

 preceded it, its elucidation has nevertheless been a very trouble- 

 some and perplexing business. Where such characters are present 

 as the dilated costa, hairy abdomen, strangely formed tibiae, or the 

 long cylindrical hypopygium with its papilla-like anal organ (the 

 type of which is represented in nudiventris) , the identification of the 

 species is on the whole simple enough ; the chief, indeed almost the 

 only, difficulty here being the assignment of the sexes, a critical 

 operation in many cnses. But when these species are set on one side, 

 a smnll and comparatively featureless residuum is left, which largely 

 depends for its disentanglement upon differences in the venation and 

 in the relative size of the supra-antennal bristles, characters which 

 are to some extent under the influence of sex and in consequence 

 especially prone to individual variation. The result is that specimens 

 turn up, particularly females, which it is impossible to locate 

 satisfactorily, but which one hesitates to accept as new forms until 

 a wider experience and more abundant material provide the clue. 



Oosfn/is, V. Ros. — After the "table" was in print, Mr. Collin sent 

 me a Phora (Aphiochseta) , suggesting that it might be the male of this 

 species. And his acumen has been fully justified. It is, however, 

 a very different looking insect from the female, since it wants the 

 stigma, or more correctly speaking, the huge costal swelling which 

 gives that sex its striking appearance. It is, I believe, the first male 

 to be correctly identified, Becker's male being the female of an allied 

 species, as is pointed out below. 



