SOCIETIES. 99' 



England by the mild winters that we usually experience, and which 

 would tend to shorten the hybernating period of a species, especially 

 with food so close at hand. Under these conditions, it is evident 

 that if a flatter variety occurred with more powerful legs, it would 

 have a good chance of obtaining food that was beyond the reach of 

 its less specialised neighbours, and it is precisely these variations 

 which are shown in the specimen exhibited, so that in spite of the 

 abnormal shape of the femora, I cannot think that it should be 

 classed as a monstrosity, but rather as an important variation, which 

 in time may become a permanent and distinct species. The great 

 difficulty is, that at present the specimen stands quite alone, and all 

 the other specimens I have seen, show no tendency to vary in any one 

 of the points in which this specimen shows so striking a divergence 

 from the type." 



March 2nd, 1897. — European and American lepidoptera. — Mr. 

 Dadd exhibited Xcnwopltila plantcuiinu ( $ with red hind-wings) ; 

 Zj/i/aena jiUoseJlae, Z. trifulii, Z. filipendulcw, from Saxony ; Anosia 

 arcJiippm and Limenitis (lisij)pns, to show mimicry; Af/rotis campestris, 

 A. (juadridentata, A. messoria, A. venerabilis, A. introferua, A. ai/restifi, 

 A. in^iiinata, A. stibgothica , A. clandestina, from Dakota, U.S.A. 

 CtENONYMPHA TiPHON vav. iNORNATA. — Dr. Buckell, exhibiting as a 

 visitor, showed specimens of Comionymplia inornata, on which he read 

 the following notes : — " In the paper on Coenonipnpha tiphnn, which I 

 read here in Oct., 1895 {Eut. liec, vol. vii., pp. 100-107), I alluded 

 to the American butterfly, described by W. H. Edwards, under the 

 name of C. inornata, which he and Scudder considered to be a distinct 

 species, but which the late .Jenner Weir looked upon only as a variety of 

 C. tiplion. My paper was read by Mr. James Fletcher, of Ottawa, the 

 entomologist to the Dominion of Canada, and he very kindly sent me 

 the five specimens of what, as he writes, ' we here call (J. inornata,' 

 which had been taken in the North West during the summer of 1895, 

 and which I exhibit this evening. In the right-hand column, I have 

 placed some specimens of the Scotch form of C. ttphon var. laidion, 

 and may just remind you that the characteristic mark of this form is 

 the obsolescent condition of the ocellated spots on the underside of the 

 hind-wing. Comparing the two insects, the American specimens 

 have a brighter coloration on the upper surface, and the hind-wings 

 are very little, if at all, darker than the fore-wings, whilst in the 

 Scotch specimens they are distinctly darker. On the under surface of 

 the fore-wings it is noticeable that the apical ocellated spot is much 

 more developed in the American than in the Scotch specimens. The 

 marked feature of the under surface of the hind-wings is the entire 

 absence of ocellated spots in the four upper specimens ; on the lowest 

 there is just a trace of one. In four of the Scotch specimens there is 

 likewise an entire absence of ocellated spots. On the whole, I am 

 disposed to adhere to the opinion, that I expressed provisionally in 

 1895, that C. inornata is not sufficiently different from C. tiphon var. 

 laidion to be worthy of a varietal name." Heredity notes on Amphi- 

 DASYS STRATARIA. — Mr. Bacot exhibited 122 specimens of Aniphidasi/s 

 strataria, bred during 1896 from the ova of a <? and ? of one of his 

 '95 broods. He also exhibited the '95 brood, together with its parents, 

 which were bred from larvae beaten in the New Forest in 1893. The 

 '96 brood consisted of 58 <? s and 64 $ s, or 47*54% J s and 52-46% 



