— 159— 



belongs to Mrs. Peart, the artist), the article reads as follows: "In this, 

 [referring to the list of species closing the volume] however, in which the 

 number of species is raised from 512 to 612, he retains in nearly every 

 particular the antique classification adopted in the first volume. The 

 studies which Mr. Edwards has undertaken upon die history of butter- 

 flies have rendered him an authority on that subject, and his skill in 

 field investigation has been unexcelled. This, however, constitutes no 

 claim whatever to any knowledge of the structure itself of butterflies, 

 upon which classification must be founded; and as he has shown no 

 such knowledge in his writings, we can only regret that he did not alto- 

 gether omit this list, since it carries an authority to the public eye which 

 it does not possess, the classification being not only false in many minute 

 particulars, but fundamentally false to nature". 



Society News. 



Brooklyn Entomological Society, Oct. 6th, 1885. — Present 27 members 

 and visitors; the president, Mr. Cramer in the chair. Mr. O. Dietz and Mr. A. 

 T. Birkhoffwere elected members of the Society. Mr. Smith proposed Mr. \V. 

 B. Taylor of Brooklyn; Mr. Weeks proposed Mr. Chas. Scott of N.Y., and Mr. 

 Neumoegen proposed Mr. Chas. Palm of N.Y. as members of the Society. On 

 motion of Mr. Neumoegen, seconded by Mr. Hulst, Senor Doctor Don Juan 

 Gundlach, of Cuba, was elected an honorary member of the Society. Mr. Hulst 

 presented additional evidence that Danais archippus occasionally presented a 

 very dark, blackish suffusion. Mr. By. Edwards exhibited a specimen of 

 archippus which before being put in cyanide was bright red; but was now dull 

 blackish. He stated however, that he had this summer taken an even darker 

 specimen in the field. He also exhibited a specimen of Colias eurydice dyed 

 a brilliant red, by the action of a damp cyanide bottle. 



Mr. Tepper exhibited a series of bred specimens of Papilio asterias and read 

 a short paper* on their variation, especially noting the facts, that the anal ocellus 

 varies in size and shape and is sometimes entirely absent, therefore not reliable 

 as a test of specific distinction. 



Mr. Smith stated, that he had of late examined every collection he had seen, for 

 variations in Papilio, and considered the anal ocellus as of absolutely no value. 

 Mr. Cramer states that a series of turnus, bred in Maine, so strongly resembled 

 rutulus that he could scarcely distinguish them. Mr. Edwards had seen bred spe- 

 cimens of asterias showing even a greater range of variation, but he considered that 

 Mr. W. H. Edwards placed more stress upon the shape of the anal spot than the 

 presence of the ocellus, and hardly liked to consider the species classed under 

 machaon as identical. He referred to P. Hippocrates which showed a peculiar 

 departure from the normal form in the shape of ocellus, and said many of the 



* Which will appear in a future number. 



