93 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — Wednesday, March 1th, 1906. 

 — Mr. F. Merrifield, President, in the chair. — The Rev. George 

 Wheeler, M.A., of Les Tourellcs, Territet, Switzerland, was elected a 

 Fellow of the Societ)'. — The decease of the following Fellows was 

 announced : — Mr. W. P. Blackburue-Maze, Mr. C. W. Dale, and Mr. 

 F.J. Horniman, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c.— Mr. H. W. Andrews exhibited 

 two specimens of Microdon latifrons, Lw., a rare dipteron taken in the 

 New Forest in June, 1905. — Mr. H. M. Edelsten showed examples of 

 Nonaffria neurica, Hb., and .V. dissoluta var. arundmeta, Schmidt, 

 from Germany, with (?) var. arundineata from Central Asia, for com- 

 parison with .Y. dissoluta and N. anmdineta, from Kent, Cambridge, 

 and Norfolk. — Mr. L. B. Prout exhibited, and read a note on, a 

 variable series of Gijnopteri/.r aladiaria, Guen., and its varieties. — 

 Mr. A. J. Chitty, combs of the honey-bee formed on a branch of nut- 

 tree, the bees having swarmed late in the year. After July they 

 deserted the combs, and having consumed all the honey contained in 

 them, again swarmed on a neighbouring tree. — Prof. R. Meldola, 

 F.R.S., on behalf of Major R. B. Robertson, a specimen of Prodenia 

 littoralis, Boisd., which had emerged in a breeding-cage kept, with 

 many others, by Major Robertson, at Boscombe, Hants, for the recep- 

 tion of caterpillars found in that district. The moth emerged on July 

 16th, 1905. The species, which is figured in Hampson's ' Moths of 

 India,' is said to have a distribution extending from the Mediter- 

 ranean subregion throughout the tropical and subtropical zones of 

 the Old World. — Commander J. J. Walker said he had taken the 

 larva, known as the Egyptian cotton-worm, in the Central Pacific 

 Islands, feeding on the tobacco-plant. — Mr. 0. E. Janson exhibited 

 a Mantis on a portion of the bark of a tree as found by Mr. F. 

 Birch in Trinidad, who stated that its close resemblance to a 

 withered leaf was evidently a protection for aggressive purposes. — 

 Mr. M. Burr, a series of Callimenidce ; a small family of Ortho- 

 ptera, consisting of two genera, Dinarchtis, with the single species 

 D. dasi/piis, Illig., and Calliinenus, of which all the known species 

 were included, with the exception of C. infiatiis, Br., from Asia 

 Minor. — Mr. H. Rowland- Brown, specimens of Anjynnis niobe var. eris, 

 female, from the Pyrenees, Cevennes, and South Tyrolese mountains. 

 He drew attention to the remarkable form of the example taken at 

 Gavarnie, in July, 1905, of which the coloration of the upper side of 

 all the wings was ruddy copper-red shot with blue upon the nervures. 

 He also remarked that whereas specimens of eris and other Argynnids 

 from the mountainous regions of Central France show a tendency to 

 maintain constant pale forms, those from the Pyrenees are generally 

 more deeply coloured, while the high Alpine forms of Central Europe 

 inclined to melanism. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., an original note- 

 book of Burchell's taken to South Africa in 1812. He said that it 

 estabhshed the date of the author's birthday, hitherto unknown, to 

 be July 12th, while it also recorded for the first time the superstitious 

 dread of the native Hottentots for the "Death's-head Motb," known 

 locally as the "Devil Bee." — Dr. F. A. Dixey, specimens of Pierine 

 butterflies from South Africa, India, and Asia Minor, to illustrate how 

 the under sides of the dry-season forms in the group are apt to take a 



