292 THE entomologist's record. 



male Nysi^ia hispidaria had paired with three females, from each of 

 which he had obtained fertile ova. Mr. Bayne remarked that H. de- 

 foliaria was still on the wing in Epping Forest, it being just six months 

 since he saw the first specimen. Mr, Front read a paper on " The British 

 representatives of the genus Caradrina'" (vide, ante pp. 198 et seq. 

 and 223 et seq.). 



April 2nd, 1895. — Exhibits : — Mr. Battley : a sprig of azalea, taken 

 from a plant in his conservatory ; the flowers of this plant were 

 normally of the ordinary large, dark red variety, but this year all were 

 very small, and each flower had a sort of calyx just below it, of the 

 same colour and textui-e as the flower ; he could not assign any reason 

 whatever for this extraordinary departure. Mr. Eiches said that the 

 flowers appeared to be identical with those of Azalea avioena. Mr. 

 Stillwell : a specimen of /Sa/^/jvt.sseme/e from Epping Forest, having only 

 one ocellus on the underside of the fore- wings. Mr. Bate : a series of Cara- 

 drina taraxaci from Honor Oak Fark, the specimens being variable but 

 mostly very dark. Mr. May: series oi Hi/herniamarginarHi horn. Ghing- 

 ford and Tooting Bee Common ; the latter were larger and better marked 

 than the former. Mr. Bayne : two specimens of Agrotis obscura from 

 Epping Forest, one of which was very obscurely marked ; also specimens of 

 the second brood of Pachycnemia hippocastanaria from the New Forest. 

 Mr. Sauze : males, females and workers of Formica nigra and repre- 

 sentatives of other species of ants. Kev. C. R. N. Burrows sent for 

 exhibition the royal cell of a termite from Natal, also a photograpli of 

 the queen and two slides of the workers, with the following notes there- 

 upon : — " The royal cell of the Natal termite is, as you will notice, much 

 higher in the centre than at the sides. These sides are the galleries in 

 which the workers move when they go to feed the queen, or to remove the 

 ova. You will notice the passages in the sides,large enough for the workers. 

 The queen is (juite enclosed and never has a chance of walking out, but — 

 poor thing — she rather resents the imprisonment, fancying, perhaps, that 

 her figure is Avorth showing, and her legs are worn away with pawing the 

 floor of the cell until mere stumps remain. When they first emerge, 

 the females are winged, but they cast their wings and are at that time 

 as active as the workers and have very decently formed legs. I re- 

 member well the ver}^ curious swarming of the termites, the clouds of 

 flying insects, and the ground littered with the detached wings. One 

 corner of a field was, I remember, one day quite white with wings. 

 The females fly for a while, then settle and deliberately bite or shake 

 off their wings. The sight is curious. All creation seems against the 

 helpless creatures — birds, beasts, and insects too. Esj^ecially so are the 

 other ants — black, red, etc. I saw several queer fights. Once a small 

 ant got a female termite (winged) by one leg ; tip went Mrs. T. and 

 with her went the ant; the flight was slow and low, so that I 

 could watch the enemy swarm up her leg, mount on her back and snip 



off a wing, when ! I saw the poor things on the groimd 



being tugged off to prison or to death in dozens, but the first thing, 

 always, was to remove the wings. I thought that I was, perhaps, 

 occasionally misled, and that really in some cases it might be the male lead- 

 ing off a bride. But, as a rule, there was no room for mistake, asthe captive 

 was carried down into the den of healthy and active ants, who used 

 often to come in for tit-bits — such as new-born rats, etc. — from my 

 bounty." Mr, Tutt read a paper on "The development of sex in 

 social insects " (vide, ante p, 193), 



