122 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



shown, including i-ich, dark, mottled forms from Delamere Forest ; the 

 greyish-white blotched race with the locally rare melanic «,berration 

 (also with white blotches) from Penmaenmawr ; melanic varieties from 

 Mansfield and Huddersfield, as well as absolutely black aberrations 

 from Knowsley, Lancashire ; the common London forms from Epping 

 Forest and Wimbledon ; var, cuncersaria from North Cornwall and 

 New Forest. Mr. Tait stated that, in breeding from extreme forms, 

 about 75 per cent, followed the parents, but pointed out that he had 

 found it difficult to get black varieties to pair. He also remarked how 

 closely the predominating pale form from North Wales resembled the 

 bare rocks upon which it rested in the daytime. Mr. Johnson remarked 

 on the great difference shown by the species in Maer Wood and Burnt 

 Wood, Staffs, localities only four miles apart, those from the former 

 place being chiefly very dark greyish-black, while the latter place 

 gave a lighter and much browner form. 



Javet, in Bedel's Fauna Seine, i., p. 322, added Helophorus porcidus, 

 Bed., to the British list, a fact subsequently noted by. Champion 

 {Trans. Ent. Soc. Land., 1905, p. 44). Newbery now states that it is 

 widely distributed in Britain, specimens in the "Power coll." being 

 labelled " Ballmuto," "Moss Morran," "Cowley" and " Esher," 

 whilst "Merton, Surrey," and " Walton-on-the-Naze," are also recorded 

 as localities. 



Newbery also notes that examples of Melu/ethes viduattis var. 

 aestimabilis, have been taken in Cumberland, by Mr. F. H. Day. 



Commander J. J. Walker states that Mr. E. G. R. Waters, of St. 

 Edmund Hall, Oxford, captured a fine example of the American species 

 Pyrameis virnmiensis {liuntera) at Luccombe, Isle of Wight, August 

 26th, 1905. Commander Walker says that this is the third example 

 of this species stated to have been caught in Britain that he has seen. 

 Records of this kind worry one. Walker repeats Barrett's suggestion 

 that these examples reach England " in a quiescent state by means of a 

 ship," but this is not at all satisfactory. It is essentially a southern species, 

 the larvfe confined almost exclusively to plants belonging to the genus 

 Gnaphaliam. They are very limited in their movements in this stage, 

 and, like P. cardui, pupate in a nest formed of leaves of the food- 

 plant. It is double-brooded in its more northern localities, the 

 butterflies of the first brood appearing in July, and of the second about 

 mid-September, the examples of this brood going mto hybernation; 

 whilst in its more southern localities it is more or less continuously- 

 brooded, without, so far as is known, any quiescent tendency in the height 

 of summer — Julj^ and August. How then does this comparatively 

 sedentary species get here alive, and in fine condition ? Gnaphalium 

 is not the sort of thing likely to come over in ships. 



Mr. Willoughby Ellis, F.Z.S., F.E.S., has been appointed President 

 of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society for the 

 ensuing year. This large and active society, which has steadily been 

 doing useful scientific work since 1858, is now, amongst other things, 

 engaged in an exhaustive enquiry into the Fauna, Flora and Natural 

 Features of the Midland Plateau. 



The society has the following sections : — Microscopical — President, 

 Mr. H. W. Bishop; Biological — President, Mr. E. Clemenshaw, M.A., 

 F.C.S. ; Geological— President, Mr. T. H. Walter, B.A., B.Sc. ; Geo- 

 graphical — President, Mr. P. E. Martineau; Malacological — President, 



