76 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



men of Vanessa cardui or Colias edusa lias been noticed in the places 

 above mentioned. My observations of the moths have been mostly 

 confined to day collecting, excepting examining on one or two evenings 

 many plants of the red valerian in North Wales, to which the common 

 moths came plentifully, as Xylophasia polyoduji, M. hrassica, Hadena 

 dentina, &c. ; the last seems generally common in many parts of Wales. 

 The larvae, pupse, and imago of Zi/i/ceiia Jilipendulce were extremely 

 abundant near Barmouth — the pupte spun up in all kinds of places, 

 even on rocks, and wood pahngs ; the imagines were most constant in 

 their markings, excepting an occasional one with the spots rather 

 smaller. Macroglossa stellatarnm occasionally visited the red valerian 

 in the same district, and later on I have now and then seen this insect 

 in West Somerset, where, also, larvfe and pupae of Acherontia atiupos 

 have been found not unfrequently. The larvae of the " whites," and, 

 in one place apparently, of Pionca foiiicalu have been very destructive. 

 I rnay, perhaps, add a word here for that often much abused bird, the 

 house sparrow — of his usefulness, often forgotten, in destroying both 

 the larvae and imagines of troublesome insects. This season alone I 

 have seen him devouring the larvffi of Malacotioma (B.) neustria, and 

 Clieimutuhia brumata, and imagines of Pldotjophora meticidosa and 

 Triphmna jyyomiba. The dry, warm season appears to have been 

 favourable to wasps ; and in June and part of July the little chafer- 

 beetle, the Welsh " Coch y bouddhu," appeared in swarms near Bar- 

 mouth, on the uplands. I noticed one day the surface of a tarn 

 dotted over with struggling victims, and the bracken and low nut- 

 bushes were at times covered with them. — T. B. Jefferys; Minehead, 

 Nov. 4th, 1901. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — February 5th, 1902. — The 

 Eev. Canon Fowler, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the chair. — The Pre- 

 sident announced that he had appointed Mr. F. DuCane Godman, 

 D.C.L., F.E.S., Professor E. B. Poulton, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., and 

 Dr. David Sharp, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., as Vice-Presidents for the 

 Session. Dr. Norman Joy, of Bradfield, near Pleading, was elected a 

 Fellow of the Society. — Professor Poulton exhibited with lantern a 

 series of slides belonging to Professor Meldola, made from actual 

 specimens by the three-colour process, illustrative of mimicry in 

 British and exotic Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. He also exhibited 

 the several specimens from which the lantern-slides had been pre- 

 pared. A discussion on the subject took place, in which Col. Swinhoe, 

 Mr. F. Merrifield, Dr. Chapman, Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse, the Rev. F. 

 D. Morice, and Col. Yerbury took part, Mr. Verrall observing that in 

 the case of Diptera they mimicked other groups rather than were 

 mimicked by them, while there were even cases in which flies fed on 

 dragonflies, and not vice versa, as was usual. With regard to the 

 protective value of the scent-glands present in groups allied to the 

 Chalcosiinffi, and conspicuous also in Anthroccra, Mr. J. W. Tutt said 

 it was possible that they might have something to do with edibility or 



