SOCIETIES. 1 y 



it with its antennai makes it produce a thread with which the leaves 

 are joined ; when one larva is exhausted a second is fetched, and the 



process is repeated. At the meeting on Dec. 5tli, Mr. F. Merrifield 



exhibited hybrids belonging to the genus Sat ant ia, obtained by Dr. 

 Standfuss, of Zurich ; viz., a male and female hybrid from a male of 

 Saturnia paroHi'a and a female of Saturuia jiyri, to wliich he had given 

 the name of Satnraia emiliae ; also a mongrel form from what Dr. Standfuss 

 describes as "a male of Calliinarphd duminida var. ^><T.so;i a " (received 

 from Tuscany) and a typical female of Cdlllinorpha doinimda, to which 

 he had given the name of roinanovi. Mr. Merrifield remarked that the 

 so-called var. jJi'rsona differed entirely from the tyjje of CalUmorpha 

 dominida. Mr. J. W. Tutt exhibited and read notes on specimens of a 

 very small form of Eacldoe, taken in Shropshire by the Rev. F. B. 

 Newnham, which that gentleman thought was distinct from E. carda- 

 mines. He pointed out that it was much smaller than the latter sj^ecies, 

 and that the discoidal spot was placed as in E. turritis and E. gruneri at 

 the juncture of the orange and white spaces, and not as in E. carda- 

 niines, well within the orange tip. Mr. Tutt also exhibited and read 

 notes on specimens of Noctua dnhlii, from Cheshire (captured by Mr. G. 

 0. Day), Essex, Yorkshire, Aberdeenshire and other counties. The 

 variation in the specimens was said to be due partly to sexual 

 dimorphism, and partly to their geographical distribution. Herr 

 Jacoby read a letter received from Mr. Buxton Forman, one of the 

 Assistant Secretaries of the Post Office, to the effect that the Postal 

 Union had decided to make a rule not to admit natural history sijeci- 

 mens by sample post, and consequently that the forwarding of such 

 specimens at the sample rate would in future be irregular. Lord 

 Walsingham stated that he had a long correspondence with the Post 

 Office authorities on the subject, and that the late Mr. Kaikes, when 

 Postmaster-General, promised him in 1691 that such specimens should, 

 so far as the British Post Office was concerned, be transmitted at 

 the sample rates ; and a letter to the same effect, from the late Sir 

 Arthur Blackwood, when Secretary to the Post Office, was published 

 in the proceedings of the Society for ISUl. Mr. 0. G. Barrett exhibited, 

 for Mr. A. J. Hodges, a specimen of Ili/drilla ludnstris, from Wicken 

 Fen; also specimens of Caradrina ambiijua, from the Isle of Wi'>ht. 

 He remarked that of the latter, one specimen has the hind nuirgin of 

 right forewing indented, and the wing broadened as though from an 

 injury to the pupa; in this wing the margins of the large orbicular and 

 reniform stigmata had become so joined that the dividing lines had 

 disappeared, and the stigmata were fused into one irregularly formed 

 blotch. Mr. McLachlan exhibited, on behalf of Mr. G. F. Wilson, F.K.S., 

 of Weybridge, a " grease band " which had been tied round trees to 

 prevent the females of Cheimatohia hrmaata from ascending the trunks 

 for the purposes of oviposition ; the band was thickly covered with 

 the bodies of females, together with a few males. Surgeon-Captain 

 Manders exhibited a pair of Chelura bifasciatn, from the Shan States, 

 and called attention to the " assembling " habits of the males, some 

 hundreds of which were attracted by the numerous females which 

 emerged from the cocoons at sunset. Mr. B. A. Bower exhibited a 

 beautiful variety of Zy<jaena lunicerae, having the spots confluent, taken 

 at Cliattenden Wood, North Kent, in J une last ; also a specimen of 

 Incnrcaria tenuicornis, taken at Chisleliurst, in May, 1893. ]\Ir. H. Goss 

 exhibited, for Mr. F. W. Urich of Trinidad, a series of males, females, 



