142 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



SOCIETIES. 



South London Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 Marc/i 8f^.— Mr. R. Adkin, F.E . S., President, in the chair.— Mr. R. Adkiu 

 exhibited pupa-cases, in situ, of several species of ^Egerid^e (Sesiidffi), 

 including ^^. culiciforniis, /E. scoUiformis, /E. asiliformis, and ^E. ich- 

 neumoniformis. — Mr. West (Greenwich), thirty species of Hemiptera, 

 which he was presenting to the Society's collections. — Several mem- 

 bers remarked on the season. Sallows had been observed in flower as 

 far back as Christmas, and were probably fully out by the first week in 

 March in the south. Hijbemia rupicapraria was out early in January ; 

 Tciniocampa pulvendenta, AspJialia flavicornis, Plwtalia pedaria, Xyssia 

 hispidaria, and T. stabilis were already out ; the last-named one was worn. 



March 22nd. — Mr. R. Adkin, F.E.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. 

 A. Harrison, for Mr. C. Oldham, fine examples of male Cosmotriche 

 potatoria, with the pale female coloration. — Mr. F. M. B. Carr, Scotch 

 and South English A. flaviconiis, showing the former to be generally 

 darker, with more strongly marked bands. — Mr. Hy. J. Turner, Erebia 

 episodea, Phijsciodes ismeiia and Satijrus nephele received from M. A. J. 

 Croker, Redvers, Assiniboia. — Mr. L. W. Newman, short series of 

 Leucania vitellina and Xyssia lappona, with beautiful and extreme 

 melanic forms of Tephrosia consonaria and Boarmia r/emmaria — Mr. S. 

 Edward, a large number of exotic LycaenidaD. — Mr. R. Adkin, a speci- 

 men of Valeria oleagina, and discussed the reputed occurrence of the 

 species in Great Britain. — Mr. T. W. Hall, dark form of Crymodes 

 exults from Rannock, with a powdered light form from the Shetland 

 Isles for comparison. — Hy. J. Turner, Hon. Pteport Secretary. 



Birmingham Entomological Society. — 202nd Meeting, March IQth. 

 — Chairman, Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, President.— The meeting was 

 held in the Society's new rooms at Avebury House, 55, Newhall 

 Street. — Mr. J. T. Fountain showed a very fine variety of Phigalia 

 pedaria. It was practically a black-veined moth, the whole of the 

 ground being almost equally suffused with grey, and the veins and 

 costa being very decidedly darker ; it was found at Highbury, near 

 Birmingham. — Mr. R. S. Searle, three specimens of Borkhausenia 

 [(Ecophora) pseudo-spretella, found about three inches under ground 

 when pupfe digging. — Mr. J. T. Fountain, a piece of cork, into which 

 a larva of Acronycta psi had bored its way and pupated ; he thought it 

 was a very unusual habit for the species. — Mr. Gilbert Smith, a log of 

 larch containing Tetropium crawshayii, and gave details of its life- 

 history. He said that it feeds only in larch, and only in trees which 

 had just begun to fail. So few trees were in the right condition, at 

 the right time, as a rule, that he thought the beetles must possess 

 some powerful sense to enable them to find them. Mr. C. J. Wainwright 

 suggested that it was perhaps not the fact that the beetles found the 

 right trees, but that they laid their eggs broadcast, and those which 

 were in the right place started new colonies, and the others died away. 

 Mr. E. C. Rossiter said that he thought it was scent, and that, perhaps, 

 when the trees began to fail, some chemical change produced a stronger 

 or difi'erent smell. He said that turpentine was very attractive, and 

 tliat some years ago he had tried a number of experiments in the open 

 air, in Exhibition Road, London, upon turpentine, orange and lemon 



