PRACTICAL HINTS. 97 



they " went down," or at least a good many of them, he did not breed 

 a single moth. In case anyone, who has hitherto failed, cares to 

 try my plan, it is as follows : — Take a section of a 40 gall, paraffin 

 cask, out of which the oil has been thoroughly burned, place it over the 

 plant of Erica, plunging it into the ground to the depth of 6 or 8 

 inches — the topmost shoots of the plant should be about level with 

 the top rim of the section. Then cover the whole with muslin. I 

 use a light framework of cane to raise the muslin well above the tub 

 and plants. — (Rev.) C. D. Ash, M.A., Skipwith Vicarage, Selby, Yorks. 



j^OCIE TIE S. 



City of London Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 Feb. 16th, 1897. — Heredity notes relating to T/Eniocampa stabilis, 

 Demas coryli, and Ennomos quercinaria. — Mr. Bacot exhibited two 

 broods of Taeniocampa stabilis with their $ parents. No. 1, of 19 

 specimens, contained d 3's (47-37 %) and 10 $ s (52-63 %). No. 2 con- 

 tained 10 specimens, the sexes being equally divided. All the speci- 

 mens were much smaller than their 2 parents (hardly larger than 

 T. I ml re ride nta). This was probably due to their having been largely 

 fed on sycamore (a food to which they were not very partial), and 

 perhaps also to their having been occasionally allowed to run very 

 short of food. Neither brood seemed to closely follow the $ parents, 

 ■either in tone of ground colour or shading. Considerable variability 

 existed in both broods as to the distance separating the orbicular and 

 reniform stigmata. Mr. Bacot also exhibited 22 specimens of Deiiias 

 coryli, bred during August, 1896, from a $ taken in Epping Forest, 

 by Mr. A. F. Bayne, last April. These contained 12 ? s (or 54-5 %) 

 and 10 ^ s (or 45-5 %). He said : " The 5 parent I carelessly lost ; 

 but, so far as my memory serves me, she was a strongly marked form, 

 the dark and light areas of the fore-wings being sharply contrasted. A 

 tendency in the same direction is noticeable in many of her offspring. 

 The $ s seem to vary much more than do the J s, both as regards 

 size, and also as to the depth of colour and sharpness of outline of the 

 dark band of the fore- wings." Mr. Bacot also exhibited 23 specimens 

 oi Fynnomos qiiercinaria, conidAmngVd 3 ^ and 10 $ s, bred in 1896, 

 from a S and $ of his '95 brood. The parents of both broods were 

 also exhibited. A comparison with the far larger brood of 106 speci- 

 mens, reared in 1895, showed that the proportion of J s to $ s was 

 almost exactly reversed ; the figures for the '95 brood were 56*6 % $ s 

 and 43-4 % i s ; while for the '96 brood they were 43-5 % 5 s and 

 56-5% (? . The moths bred during 1896 exhibited but slight variation, 

 the ground-colour being of almost exactly the same tone in all the 

 specimens, only 1 $ being noticeably lighter in this respect. They 

 also showed far greater stability as regards the strength of the dark 

 suffusion in the fore-wings. In every case, with possibly one excep- 

 tion (the ? previously alluded to), the '96 brood was as dark, or darker, 

 than their parents, and also than their grandparents, if the sexes were 

 taken separately and compared with the grandparent of the same 

 sex. At least one 5 and many of the males were darker than either 

 3 parent or grandparents. In the '95 brood 23 % had hardly a 

 trace of suffusion ; 33-66 % were suffused, but to a less extent 

 than their parents ; while the remaining 43-34 % were as dark as the 



