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TIIK ENTCaiOLOGIST .S KECOKD. 



an eye on those trap.s, jjeeause a good many Initterflies and mollis find 

 their way into them, and, curiousl}' enough, the only two specimens of 

 Catocala nvpta that I have ever met with, were caught here in one of 

 them in Septemher, 1875. When therefore, on Septemljer 12th last, 

 among the hosts of other insect prisoners I saw through the dim giass- 

 the form of a Catocala, the thought at once occurred to me tliat at last 

 another C. nnpta had fallen a victim to its greed ; but a look at the- 

 markings showed that it could not belong to that species, so, after Ijeing 

 killed and set out, it A\-as duly lalielled, and put aside for future identi- 

 fication. On comparing it lately with Continental specimens I was 

 deliglited to find that it Avas Avithout doul)t C. electa, as I liad thought 

 Avould probably Ije the case. Although the right hind wing has evi- 

 dently been " in the Avars," and is unfortunately rather Ijadly damaged, 

 in other respects the moth is in fairly good condition, but neither in it 

 nor in either of the two jierfect foreign examples now before me — re- 

 cently procured through different sources so as to aA'oid the chance or 

 another species l)eing accidentally sent to me under that name — can I 

 find one of the characters menti(»ned in Borkhausen's original descriji- 

 tion of C. electa, as (pioted by Mr. Tutt, namely the rose-coloured streak 

 Avhich runs from the l)ase of the fore Aving as far as the second line. 

 As hoAVCA'cr Guenee remarks (see BriliHli Noctme and their Varieties, a'oL 

 iv., J). 49) that of scA'eral species, including electa, some iudiA'iduals 

 shoAv " a lieautiful delicate red tint '' on the alnlomen, Avhilst others are 

 Avithout it, I can only suppose tliat this rose-coloured streak is of the 

 same nature, and also an unrelial)le character, l)eing sometimes present 

 and sometimes almost or altogether absent. — Eistace E. Bankes, The 

 Kectory, Corfe Castle, Dorset. February Gth, 1893. 



gOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of Londox. — Fehritari/ 22nd. — ]\Ii'. F. J. 

 Hanljury exhil)ited, on liehalf of Mr. Percy H. Russ, of Sligo, several 

 long and A-ery \aria])le series of Agrotis tritici, A. valliijera, and ^4. cur- 

 soria, together Avith Irish forms of many other species, some of Avhich 

 Avere believed to be ncAv to Ireland. Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher and Mr. 

 J. W. Tutt made s(une remarks on tlie si»ecies. Mr. E. W. Lloyd ex- 

 hibited specimens of a species of Acarus found in Ncav Zealand Avheat.. 

 He stated that Mr. A. D. Michael had examined the specimens, and pro- 

 nounced them to belong to Ti/rogh/phvsfariua', a species Avhich had been 

 knoAvn for OA-er a hundred years as a destroyer of corn, and Avas only 

 too abundant all over Europe, and probably OA^er the temperate regions 

 of the Avorld. Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited, l)y means of the oxy- hy- 

 drogen lantern, photographs of the larA'a of Nemeohim lucina in its first 

 stage, shoAving the conjoined dorsal tubercles, each carrying tAvo hairs, 

 Avhich are remarkal)le in being divided into tAvo branches. For com- 

 liarison he also shoAvcd, l)y means of the lantern, draAving of the young 

 larva of Papilio aja.r, after Seudder, and a portion of a segment of Sme. 

 rinthus populi, as the only instances knoAvn to him of similar dichotomous 

 hairs in lepidopterous larva\ Mr. Poulton pointed out that he had 

 described the forked hairs of Smerintlms in the Entomological Society's 

 ' Transactions ' for 1885, and tliat such hairs Avere even better developed 

 in the genus He maris originally described, as he lielieA'ed, by Curtis. Mr. 

 Poulton also said that he had noticed similar forked hairs coA'cring the 



