SOCIETIES. 261 



really fair figure of the Blaps, and a very good description of the 

 insect. Alluding to the then popular notion that the imperial purple 

 dye (which was kept a profound secret by the few dyers who knew 

 how to prepare it) was made from the lihijis, he proceeds as follows : — 

 ' These little creatures, though they are baleful to nature itself, to men 

 and to bees, yet God hath endued them Avith sundry virtues, in which 

 they exceed the Blatta^ Bizantine, for take off his shell or mail, which 

 is thin between its head (which is called I'apavcr) and its neck, what 

 doth the belly contain but the ornament to dye withal, and to 

 delight the eyes with their colour. The I Haps is a certain cure for 

 ear-ache if beaten up with old wine, honey, pomegranate-rind, 

 unguentum syriacum, apple-juice, tar and onion.' This delightful 

 mixture is to be boiled in a pipkin and, when cold, to be poured into 

 the ear. — (From Wood's Insects Ahmad, pp. 179-180)." 



Mr. Bacot exhibited a large number of imagines of L'silnra iiiuiuuha, 

 to illustrate the following Notes on the breeding of Pstluija monacha. 

 — " From moths bred in 1893 from New Forest larvte I obtained two 

 batches of ova called respectively No. 1 and No. 2. No. 1 was laid 

 by a dark 2 (<? unknown) and produced nearly equal numbers of light 

 and dark forms. No. 2 (parents unknown) produced pale forms only. 

 A number of these moths were paired, and I selected four batches of 

 eggs to breed from in 1895 ; these I lettered I, E, B and A. I and 

 E were inbred from No. 1 ; A was bred from No. 2 ; and B was 

 from a cross between No. 1 and No. 2. My notes on the moths reared 

 from these four batches of ova are as follows : — Brood I. (Parents : 

 a dark and suffused $ with a strong, but clearly marked ^ ) : — 

 Sexes are equal 18 <? s, li $ s. The females, with the exception 

 of one, which is lighter, are all as dark or slightly darker than the 

 (? parent, only two having any tendency to the blurred and suffused 

 central band of the $ parent. Of the 14 5 s all but one are more or less 

 dark and suffused, some to a greater extent than the J parent. Brood E. 

 (Parents : a dark and suffused J with a normal S ): — 8 J" s and 11 J s : — 

 Four of the (^ s are much darker, three are about the same shade, 

 and one is slightly paler than the S parent. Of the $ s two are 

 slightly darker than the $ parent, the remainder having the suffused 

 tendency to only a slight extent. Bisood B. (Both parents pale). 

 Shows a large proportion of $ s, 26 against 14 ^ s, variation of 

 colour slight, all folloAV the parents closely. Brood A. (Parents 

 rather strongly but distinctly marked). 11 J s, 12 ? s, follow the 

 parents closely, general tendency for the markings to be strong and 

 clear. The suffusion of colour in Broods I and A seems to arise chiefly 

 from the darkening of the generally faint and interrupted line parallel to, 

 but on the inner side of, the elbowed line. There is on the whole a tendency 

 to breed true, and for the J" s to follow the <^ parent and the $ s to 

 follow the $ parent. I paired a number of these 



moths bred last year, and on going through my boxes containing the 

 ova I made the following notes: In-Breeding. — Of two pairings of I 

 with I one produced no ova and the other a fair number of apparently 

 fertile ova, the $ in the latter case was a cripple ; of four pairings of 

 B with B, all produced medium to large batches of ova all of which 

 look fertile. Crossing. — Of three pairs of I with E (1) produced a few 

 ova, not all fertile, (2) very few ova and very few of these fertile, (3) 

 a few ova all or nearly all fertile. One paii' (A with B) produced 

 a fair batch of ova, most look fertile. One pair (A with I) produced 



