1886.] 2S3 



It makes its appearance in the form of a small moth, with velvety-blaek body and 

 head, green stripes along sides, and is about quarter-inch long. In a few days it 

 sheds loings, becoming a caterpillar, ayid in a toeek it lays eggs, each caterpillar 

 producing two hundred ! ! It grows two inches, and it blackens the field as they 

 move about voraciously eating. In one place forty acres of forage were reduced to 

 stubble. Even grass has been eaten up." 



This astonishing statement is, however, eclipsed in a London paper usually 

 well-informed, where we read : — " In common with other countries, Natal has been 

 troubled with an insect plague which has played sad havoc with the crops. It 

 seems to be of the genus Aphis, of which there are many varieties, and a description 

 of it is appended, in order that those suffering from a similar pest in other parts of 

 the world may compare notes : — The pest makes its appearance in the form of a 

 small moth, &c., &c." — Eds. 



The South Lon^do]^- Entomological and Natural Histoet Society, 

 March l^th, 1886 : R. Adkin, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. G. Day, T. H. Hall, W. D. Gooch, and J. W. Tutt were elected 

 Membei's of the Society. Mr. South exhibited specimens of Vanessa Callirho'e, Fab., 

 bred from larvae found at Teneriffe, and contributed some interesting notes. Mr. 

 Wellnian exhibited dark forms of Hypsipetes elutata, Hb., from Barnsley. Mr. 

 Mera, dwarf forms of Lyccena Mgon, Schiff., L. Icarus, Rott., and Vanessa cardui, 

 L. Mr. Adkin, reddish forms of TcBiiiocampa gracilis, Fb., which he said he 

 understood were bred from larvae obtained in the Kentish Marshes, but the specimens 

 exhibited were very different from the ordinary Kentish form. Mr. Carrington 

 stated he had taken this form of T. gracilis in the New Forest, but it was really the 

 Scotch form of the species. Mr. Henderson exhibited the following insects from 

 Lundy Island : — Ichneumon xanthorius, Foerst., Lacon murinus, L., and a species 

 of Tenthredopsis. Mr. Billups, the following species of Coleoptera : — Demochroa 

 gratiosa,Ij., from the Malaccas, Clinteria chloronota,¥., from Ceylon, C.conJinis,F., 

 from N. India, and Polydceis puher, F., Onthophagus gazella, O. Marsyas, O. 

 4^-punctata, 0\., and Bricoptis variolosa, 01., f; om Madagascar, and Anthia sex- 

 guttata, Lat., from India, and read a short paper on this latter species. Mr. E. Joy 

 read notes on collecting Lepidoptera at Wicken Fen. 



April \st, 1886 : the President in the Chair. Messrs. C. H. Watson, Gr. P. 

 Shearwood, Stanley Edwards, A. Beaumont, and B. W. Adkin were elected Members. 

 Mr. G-oldthwaite exhibited series of Coenonympha Typhon, Rott., and JErebia cethiops, 

 Esp. Mr. Cooper, Drepana binaria, Hufn., B. cultraria, Fb., and Urastria 

 venustula, Hb., from Epping Forest ; imagines and pupa eases of Eiipacilia 

 ambiguella, Hb., from the New Forest, and varieties of Lyccsna Icarus, Rott. Mr. 

 J. T. Williams, a fine series of Eriogaster lanestris, L., and a long column of 

 varieties of Hybernia leucophearia, Schiff. Mr. E. Joy, Nyssia hispidaria, Fb. 

 Mr. Stevens, Petasia nubeculosa, Esp. Messrs. South and TugweU, fine series of 

 Hybernia marginaria, Bork., var. fuscata. Mr. South said the specimens exhibited 

 were bred from ova received from Mr. J. Harrison of Barnsley, who stated, that the 

 eggs were deposited by a dark female which had been in union with a melanic male. 

 Mr. Billups exhibited the following Coleoptera, taken by him in Headley Lane on 

 the 22nd March, 1886 -.—Panagmis quadripustulatus, Sturm, Lebia chlorocephala, 



