SOCIETIES. 319 



SOCIETIES. 



The North London Natural History Socikpy met on February 

 27th, when Mr. Prout exhibited specimens of, and read the 

 following Notes on Melanippe sociata. — " These specimens will illus- 

 trate some notes which I am publishing in the KnhDiiolur/ist's lumnl 

 {ante, p. 249. Ed.). They are representatives of three broods which I 

 have bred from ova obtained at Handown; broods B and C, I regard as 

 normal forms ; in brood A, on the other hand, none are entirely 

 normal, the majority of them having pale basal area and hind-wings, 

 while the remainder (six specimens) are the ab. ciiu/ulata of Tengstrom, 

 with dark abdomen, basal area, and hind-wings." Mr. Bacot exhibited 

 broods of FhuKnintsqiwirinaria, Aiiipliidasi/sstrataria, Sdoiia ti'tralanaria, 

 and read the following Notes bearing on heredity exhibited by the 

 specimens : — " As regards K. qiwrcinaria, the parents were taken in 

 cap., in Clapham Road, August, 1894. The 3- s bred show a con- 

 siderable range of variation, both as regards richness, depth of ground- 

 colour, and in the sult'usion of the fore-wings. The first 8 have very 

 slight, if any, traces of suffusion ; the remaining 15 of the row have 

 it well marked, though not so strongly as in the father ; while the 

 next row of 28 approach the ^ parent closely, but only one specimen 

 is noticeably darker. The $ s are naturally more pallid than the ^ s, 

 but a few show a tendency to the richer coloration of the <? parent. 

 The first 16 have hardly a trace of suffusion, the next 20 or 30 range 

 from nearly as dark to rather darker than the mother, the remainder 

 are much darker, in one or two instances closely approaching the 

 (3^ parent. The greater part of the brood oi A. strataria died in the 

 pupal stage. Those that emerged closely followed the parent form. 

 As regards S. tetndunaria, the species is, of course, dimorphic, pre- 

 senting a well-marked difference between the spring and summer forms. 

 The specimens of this species exhibited, include the broods of 5 genera- 

 tions. The first parents were a dark 5 and a very light g- , both of the 

 spring form. One ^ in the second brood showed a decided tendency 

 to follow its father in coloration. Brood No. 3 was expected to 

 produce some light forms, but these showed a marked tendency to 

 follow the ? grandparent rather than the ^ . At this point the 

 brood was practically spoiled from an experimental point of view, as, 

 to keep the stock from deteriorating, fresh blood was introduced 

 by crossing with a captured ^ , 87 specimens bred from half the 

 ova resulting from this cross-formed brood No. 4. There was a 

 tolerable range of colour in this brood, but nothing calling for special 

 remark. Special attention, however, should be given to the ^ parent 

 of brood No. 5, the markings of which are blurred and indistinct, and 

 the colours more or less suffused. There were very few fertile eggs 

 laid by the $ of this brood (not more than 12). Two moths bred from 

 these eggs emerged last autumn, the remaining pupte are awaiting 

 the spring. It is worthy of notice that both these specimens are of 

 the summer form, although they emerged from autumn pupa^, which 

 normally produce the spring form, and also, that neither of them 

 showed the slightest tendency to follow the <? as regards the blurred 

 and indistinct Aving markings." Mr. Nicholson : three generations of 

 Ennunws (pwrcinaria. The specimens show the gradual development 

 of a dark cloud exterior to the outer transverse line on the fore-wing, 



