SOCIETIES. 313 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London.— November ith, 1896. — Cast 

 NYMPH-SKINS OF DEAGON-FLiEs. — Ml' McLachlaii exhibited a collection 

 of the cast nymph-skins of more than one-third of the species of 

 European Dragon-flies from the Department de I'lndre, France, sent 

 to him by Mons. Rene Martin. Two or three of the species had been 

 reared in an aquarium, but the identification of most of them has 

 been secured by finding the imago drying its wings in the immediate 

 vicinity of the cast skin. Aberrations of Acidalia makginepunctata. 

 — Mr. R. Adkin exhibited a long series of Acidalia laart/inepwictata, 

 taken on the sea-coast at Eastbourne, Sussex, during the past eight 

 summers. The series included examples of a bone-coloured form 

 with slightly indicated transverse markings ; others much dusted with 

 black scales, giving them a deep grey tone, with well-developed 

 markings ; and sundry forms intermediate between the two ; also 

 three taken this year, in which the whole of the wings, with the 

 exception of a pale submarginal line, is densely covered with 

 scales, giving them a similar appearance to the so-called "black" 

 forms that are found among some of the species oiBoarmia and TepJtrusia. 

 Aberration in the elytra of a female Dytiscus circumcinctus. — 

 Mr, Horace St. John Donisthorpe exhibited a female specimen of 

 Di/tivcus circumrinctus, Ahr., with elytra resembling in form those of 

 the male. He said the specimen had been taken in Wicken Fen in 

 August last. Mellinia ocellaris at Southend. — Mr. Tutt exhibited 

 a specimen of Mdlinia ucdlaris, recently taken near Southend, 

 together with a specimen of M. (jilva<iu for comparison. Argyresthia 

 ATMORiELLA. —He also exhibited four specimens of An/i/n'sthia atiiio- 

 riiila, taken by Mr. Atmore, last June, at Lynn, Norfolk. Pupa-case 

 OF Thymelicus lineola. — He also exhibited a pupa-case of T/njiiniicm 

 liiu'oJa, from the Essex salt marshes. He d:dw attention to the 

 structural characters exhibited by it, and pointed out that it diflered 

 markedly from the pupa of Pamiildla comma, exhibited at the last 

 meeting. These structural differences led him to suggest that the 

 separation of the old genus IIcsj)eria (as still maintained by some 

 British lepidopterists) into Pamjthila &ndi T/n/iiuiicH.s, should be insisted 

 upon. Melampias pharte and M. melampus. — Mr. Tutt also ex- 

 hibited a long series of a Melampias which he had captured at Le 

 Lautaret, in the Dauphine Alps, at an elevation of 7,000-8,000 feet. 

 He observed that the specimens exhibited were peculiar in some very 

 important particulars, combining some of the characteristics of Krchia 

 {Melampias) melampus, and M. pharte. He said his attention had 

 been first drawn to this form by some fine examples, captured by 

 Dr. Chapman and himself on Mont de la Saxe in 1895. Compared 

 with the Tyrolean examples of M. vielampus, this form showed a 

 tendency to a lengthening of the fore-wings and to an obsolescence of 

 the black dots, thus approaching M. pharte ; but the females presented 

 none of the typical characters of the female of M. pharte. On the 

 whole, he felt satisfied that the ]\Iont de la Saxe specimens were a 

 form of M. melamjnis. Mr. Elwes observed that, though all the Conti- 

 nental butterflies had been so long studied by P^uropean entomologists, 

 he did not think the form exhibited by Mr. Tutt had been hitherto 

 noticed. He considered that ]\Ir. Tutt had made out his case, and he 

 agreed in the conclusion at which he had arrived. Mr. McLachlan, 



