SOCIETIES. 229 



She endeavoured to join the umbratus where they were most numerous 

 and some of those that had previously been with her protected her 

 when any of the others endeavoured to attack her. By December 

 ■21st she was accepted by the whole nest, and has been treated as 

 their qvieen ever since. Only one or two ? s occasionally threatened 

 her with their jaws, though the first fiili(/inoxi(s 5 placed in the 

 nest was killed. The ^ s killed most of their own virgin $ p. 

 Mr. W. C. Crawley also exhibited a case containing a colony of Lauus 

 umbratus with a L. fidii/inosiifi J as queen, and a colony of L. nif/er 

 with a L. umbratus queen. He mentioned that deJilated J s do not 

 always behave as if fertilised, the $ in this nest being restless, as the 

 winged ? s are before the marriage flight. Dr. Chapman began a 

 discussion as to whether this form of " parasitism" was in the long 

 run profitable to the parasitised species, by weeding out the weaker 

 nests. Temperature Experiments on Pup^. — Mr. F. Merrifield 

 exhibited 134 specimens of Selenia bilunaria, and read a short paper 

 on the question whether temperature in the pupal stage may afl'ect 

 the size of the imago in some Heterocera. His experiments showed 

 that in every case the iniagines from the cooled pupse are, on the 

 average, larger than those from the forced, the difference ranging in 

 the males from 1*3 to 20-8 per cent, (averaging 13-6 or 13-9), in the 

 females from 0-7 to 9-5 per cent, (averaging 3-3 or 3-6). It seemed to 

 him that the difference was too great and too diffused, embracing, as 

 it does, each sex in five separate families, to be explained in any other 

 way than this : that it is caused by something that, in consequence of 

 the difference in temperature, happened to either those forced or those 

 cooled, or both of them, in the pupal stage. Stereoscopic Photograph. 

 — Mr. H. Main exhibited a stereoscopic photograph of the cocoon of 

 €hryso])a flara, opened to show the hybernating larva, and of the larva 

 taken out of the cocoon to show how it lies coiled up with its tail over 

 its head. — Gigantic Psychid Cases. — Mr. 0. E. Janson exhibited larvae 

 and cases of a Psychid from Amboyna, the cases being beautifully 

 constructed and closely covered on the exterior with small spines, 

 intermixed with larger spines or thorns. The largest of the cases 

 measured 9 ins. in length. Paper. — Dr. Chapman read a paper on 

 " The British and a few Continental Species of the Genus Scnparia," 

 and showed photographs of the genitalia and a drawing to illustrate 

 the neuration. April 5th. — The Rev. F. D. Morice, M.A., President, 

 in the Chair. The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the 

 Society : Messrs. H. W. Davy, Geelong, Victoria ; H. Boileau, Bois de 

 Colombes, France; Eufus Mallinson, Oakland, Windermere. Canadian 

 PiERiDs. — Mr. Eobert Adkin exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Lachlan Gibb, 

 of Montreal, Canada, three specimens (two males and one female) of a 

 Pieris taken by Mr. Gibb at Lost River, Canada, in May 1910, 

 together with series of P. oleracea and P. rapae from the same and 

 other Canadian localities for comparison. Mr. Gibb asked the opinion 

 of the fellows upon the three specimens, and suggested the possibility 

 of their being the result of natural hybridisation between P. oleracea 

 and P. rapae. Dr. Dixey was of opinion that the three specimens in 

 question were certainly not hybrids, and even probably only a variety 

 of P. oleracea ; he pointed out that they differed less from the P. oleracea 

 exhibited than did the series of P. rapae from one another. Earwigs 

 FROM Hyeres. — Mr. W. J. Lucas showed three specimens of Euborellia 

 inoesta, Gene, received on April 3rd from Hyeres, from Dr. Chapman, 



