SOCIETIES. 301 



timber at Burton-on-Trent. This had been among wood in a box 

 since the beginning of July last, and there was scarcely a trace of 

 frass. Marsham had recorded the escape of a larva of Buprestis 

 splendens from the wood of a desk in the Guildhall, which had stood 

 there for more than twenty years. It is probable that the growth is 

 extraordinarily slow, and consequently that the larva can maintain life 

 for very long periods in most unfavourable conditions. Mr. Blandford 

 called attention to similar cases which he had brought before the 

 Society. It appeared likely to him, from what was known about such 

 nsects as Callidium variabile, which was occasionally bred from dry 

 wood at long intervals, that these species were not abnormally slow- 

 growing under normal conditions, but become so in dry timber, in 

 which they probably sustained life with difficulty, especially when the 

 outside of the wood was varnished. Mr. Waterhouse exhibited, for 

 Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy, living examples in various stages of a Cayoborus 

 in nuts of Attalea funifera from Brazil. Elditt had described the 

 attacks of an allied species upon the seeds of Cassia fistula. Mr. Tutt 

 exhibited, for Dr. Chapman a series of Zygcena exulans, from Finmark, 

 and discussed the differences between them and the Scotch form. 

 Papers were communicated by Mr. W. F. H. Blandford "On some 

 Oriental Scolytidai of economic importance, with Descriptions of 

 five new Species" ; and by Mr. van der Wulp (through Col. Yerbury) 

 on " Asilidas from Aden and its neighbourhood." 



November 16th. — Mr. B. Trimen, F.B.S., President, in the chair. 

 Dr. A. L. Bennett, Mission Protestante, Libreville, French Congo ; 

 Mr. J. G. McH. Gordon and Mr. B. S. G. McH. Gordon, of Corsemalzie, 

 Whauphill, Wigtonshire ; Mr. J. A. Kershaw, of Morton Banks, 

 Lewisham Boad, Windsor, Melbourne, Victoria ; Mr. A. G. Lethbridge, 

 of Glynde Place, Lewes ; Mr. W. J. Lucas, B.A., of Minerva Boad, 

 Kingston-on-Thames; Mr. R. H. Belton, c/o Perkins and Co., Ltd., 

 Brisbane, Queensland ; and Dr. A. J. Turner, of Wickham Terrace, 

 Brisbane, Queensland, were elected Fellows of the Society. Mr. Tutt 

 showed, for Mr. Herbert Williams, a series of specimens of Pararge 

 egeria bred from eggs laid in July. A portion of the brood were forced, 

 and the imagos, which emerged, in November and December of the 

 same year, showed marked darkening of the hind margin of the under 

 side of the hind wings, and were of a greyer colour than those which 

 appeared at the normal time. He also exhibited a batch of fifty 

 specimens of Amphidasys betidaria bred from ova deposited by a female 

 captured in Essex. The progeny ranged from a colour rather lighter 

 than the normal form to a blackish tint almost equal to that of var. 

 doubledayaria ; all intergrades were represented without a sign of dis- 

 continuity. Mr. H. J. Elwes gave an account of a journey undertaken 

 by him in June and July of the present year to the Bussian portion of 

 the Altai Mountains, partly for sport and partly to investigate the 

 distribution of insects in that region, and the line of demarcation 

 between the Eastern and Western Palsearctic subregions. He exhibited 

 examples of 141 species of butterflies taken by himself. Of these 

 many had not been previously recorded from the region, of which the 

 total number of species now stood at 184 ; his list showed that the 

 lepidopterous fauna had a more European and Siberian character than 

 previously supposed, or than Seebohm had found to exist in the 



