SOCIETIES. 215 



exactly similar female. — Kd.]. Mr. Billups, a specimen of Deikphila 

 capensis, captured at sea, some 472 miles from Gibraltar, by the 

 captain of a vessel on which three came on board. Mr. Frohawk, 

 drawings and living specimen of a tick taken from the neck of a 

 fox terrier, a week before. Mr, H. Moore, a beautiful series of 

 the Orthopteron, JE.dipoda fasciata from Trocadero near Cadiz, 

 showing great variation. Mr. Weir remarked on the protective 

 coloration, etc., shown by the species. — J.W.T. [I think the above 

 report will show how strong a hold " Variation " is obtaining on the 

 minds and sympathies of entomologists. — Ed.] 



City of London Entomological and Natural History Society. 

 — Thursday^ September i^th, 1891. — Exhibits: — Mr. Tutt, several 

 beautiful vars. belonging to the Record Exchange Club, including: — 

 (i). Strenia clathrata, belonging to Mr. Sydney Webb, in some of 

 which the spaces between the transverse lines were filled in with 

 darker so as to develop a banded form, in others the spaces were 

 reduced to a minimum and formed fine lines in the centre of the wing. 

 (2). Coremia unide7itaria, belonging also to Mr. Sydney Webb, with 

 the central band much reduced ; a typical C. unideniaria, bred by Mr. 

 Nelson Richardson from eggs laid by a dark red-banded var., a red- 

 banded unidentaria bred with typical black-banded specimens from a 

 dark red banded var., also part of a brood of C. ferrugata which had 

 bred true, with one of the parents. (3). Gracilaria stramineella, which 

 some of the members of the Exchange Club considered to be a var. of 

 G. elongel/a. (4). A beautiful black var. of T. biundu/aria captured 

 by Captain Robertson in South Wales (the black in this resembles the 

 intense black in the Huddersfield Boarmia repandata), also a var. of 

 Agrotis vestigialis, deeply suffused with reddish. (5). Boarmia repan- 

 data var. co?iversaria, two forms, one with the ground colour pale grey, 

 the other with the ground colour dark grey, but both having the band 

 equally distinct. Mr. Clark exhibited Agrotis ashwortkii bred from 

 larva taken in Wales. He remarked that these larvae fed entirely on 

 the blossoms of the dandelion, concealing themselves by day at the 

 roots of the plant. Mr. Battley, Centra vinula, Nola cucullatella and 

 Eupithecia subnotata, together with parasites bred from each. He also 

 exhibited a number of cocoons of Eriogaster lanestris, part of which 

 had been formed among dead hawthorn leaves and the rest among 

 paper shavings, the first being much darker than the others. He stated 

 that the silk appeared to be almost white in both cases, but after the 

 cocoon was partly formed the larva injected into it a brown liquid, 

 which caused the dark colour. Mr. Tutt remarked that he had 

 noticed a similar instance of protective coloration in the cocoons of 

 Halias chlorana, which almost invariably assumed the colour of the 

 surrounding objects, if the larvae had been in the same situation for two 

 days before spinning. If, however, they were placed under the different 

 conditions immediately before or after they began to form their cocoons, 

 they made them to accord with the colouring of the objects from 

 which they had been removed. Mr. Quail exhibited life-histories of 

 Saturnia carpini 2lx\A Cymatophora flavicornis, also a preserved larva of 

 Phorodesma Sfnaragdaria and an ichneumoned larva of Cuspidia altii. 

 Dr. Buckell, living larvse of Caradrina morphens, six weeks old. He 

 remarked that Newman states that this species '' feeds throughout the 



