FIELD WOEK FOR MAY AND EARLY JUNE. 45 



Gdecliia popultila, Kpunda riminalh, Ort/ionia lota, and many other 

 species will be bred. Quite a succession of species will be obtained if 

 the leaves be gathered continuously for several weeks. 



SOCIETIES. 



Thk City of London Entomological and Natural History SocrETV. ' 

 — April 7th, 1896. — Exhibits : — Mr. Nicholson : a batch of ova op 

 Taeniocampa miniosa laid on a dead oalv-leaf, which they strongly 

 resembled in general tint, having changed slightly in colour since 

 deposition ; they were sent by Dr. Chapman. Mr. J. A. Clark : a 

 CURIOUSLY MARKED SPECIMEN OF Hybernia MARtiiNARiA, which rescmbled 

 some of the rather suli'used forms of H. (lefoltaria. Mr. Tremayne : 

 LIVING LARV^ of ('alUinorplm lUnninula, Bumbi/.r qucrcus, (Jdonestis 

 potatoria and Arctia caia, from Deal ; he distributed some of the 

 larvfe of C. doin inula, which, he said, were excessively abundant near 

 Kingsdown this year. He also showed a pupa, which he had found 

 lying on the sand on the shore, not far from some bedstraw ; Mr. Clark 

 said it was < 'hoi'mcrDiipa dpcnor : but it was a small specimen. ^Ir. 

 Fuller : a perfect specimen of Agrotis saucia, which he had taken on 

 sallow-bloom at Keston. A short discussion took place regarding the 

 difficulty in breeding Callimurpha dominula. Mr. Clark said that 

 he had always been very successful so long as he fed the larvce on non- 

 succulent plants, like hawthorn, nettle, dead-nettle, etc. ; but ground- 

 sel and similar juicy plants were invariably fatal. Mr. Tremayne 

 mentioned a case in which nothing but cripples resulted ; he thought 

 this was due to the fact that all these pupa? had been removed from 

 their cocoons. 



April 21st, 1896. — Exhibits: -Mr. Nicholson: a piece of sallow 

 cut from the end of a branch about 5 feet in length, growing on a bush 

 in Ongar Park Wood. The lower part of the branch was normal, but 

 about 2 feet from the ground it gradually began to widen and flatten, 

 until at the end it was about an inch and a-quarter in width, but only 

 ^^ of an inch thick. The last four inches of the piece shown curved 

 round till it almost formed a circle, and from the extreme end a 

 normal twig had groAvn to a length of about 3 inches. The catkins 

 and flower-buds were distributed in a roughly-spiral manner round the 

 flattened portion throughout. Mr. Nicholson mentioned a similar 

 instance of exactly parallel malformation in a piece of asparagus, 

 exhibited by Mr. Battley at a meeting of the North London Natural 

 History Society. No one was able to suggest a cause for this extra- 

 ordinary freak, which, Mr. Riches said, was not infrequent in asparagus 

 and some other plants. Mr. Tutt read the following : — 



" Notes on Hydrcecia lucens. — I exhibit to-night, for Mr. J. Finlay, 

 of Morpeth, a long series of H. luccna. Probably no Noctuid species 

 are less known than those recognised as H. nirtitans, H. lucens 

 and //. palwU'i. Whether they be species or sub-species is not known. 

 They are very easily to be distinguished by those who know all three 

 forms. They may even occur on the same ground and maintain their 

 marked distinctions, whilst //. paltulis, at any rate, breeds true. It 

 would appear that the collectors in the North of Britain get only 

 //. lucens, whilst those in the south get only H. nictitan^. The range 

 of //. fialuiUs has not yet been determined. It is the only form of the 



