SOCIETIES. 67 



Species did not hyberiiate, but fed all the wiater. Mr. McA.rtliiir. a 

 specimen oi Aplecta occulta, just bred from a Rannoch larva. Mr. Adkin, 

 a series of the same species, part taken and part bred from larvae taken 

 at the same locality ; they were of good size, and very darkly marked. 

 Mr. Perks, specimens of the "jumping bean," a Mexican fruit contain- 

 ing the larvae of Carpovapaa saltitans. The remainder of the evening 

 was devoted to the exhibition, by means of the lantern, of some sixty 

 photo-micrographic slides of insect anatomy, by Mr. F. Clark aided by 

 Mr. Furueaux, F.R.G.S. ; some of tlie prepared objects from which 

 slides had been made were kindly lent by ]\lr. W. West, of Streatham. 

 Mr. Clark first showed, by means of diagrams, his method of making 

 the slides ; and then went on to exhibit various forms of antennae, the 

 tracheae, several forms of the tongue, the compound eye, scales of Lepi- 

 doptera, hairs of common larvae, and a most interesting series of the 

 parasites of man and animals. The large screen used had been bought 

 by Mr. Edwards, and most kindly presented to the Society, which is 

 now admirably equipped with a lantern and all appliances for demon- 

 stration purposes. — Hy. J. Turnek, Hon. Beport Sec. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. — December lith, 

 1890. — Mr. S. J. Capper, President, in the chair. A paper was read 

 by Dr. J. Harold Bailey entitled " Notes on a Day's Beetle Collecting 

 in Shropshire," in which he recounted the various species taken, and 

 stated it was a ground over which the late Charles Darwin had often 

 worked for coleopterous insects. Mr. H. B, Prince also read a paper 

 entitled " Experiences in Lepidoptera in 1896." Tlie author, after 

 referring to the general scarcity of insects during 1896, especially in 

 tlie autumn, drew attention to the controversy now going on as to 

 whether Lepidoptera were over collected to the point of extermination, 

 which led to considerable discussion. Mr. Pierce stated that no one 

 who had ever visited the fen district, or such places as Barnwell Wold, 

 could for a moment believe that over-collecting could account for the 

 disappearance of Polyounuatus dispar or Lycann avion. Liverpool 

 entomologists, he said, were especially favourably situated for observing 

 local species, and mentioned Nyssia zonaria, which in some seasons 

 was so abundant that it was impossible to walk without treading on 

 larvae at each stride; yet every now and then the species had gradually 

 disappeared entirely from a locality, and would certainly have been 

 lost had it not been re-introduced by Mr. Gregson and others. Bombi/.v 

 tiifoUi was very similar. Efforts to re-establish L.yccena avion and 

 Oiyyia dispav had entirely failed, even for one season, although the 

 experiment had been tried with the latter many hundreds of times in 

 different parts of the country ; the opinion of tliose present being that 

 it was not to man, but to other agencies, that the disappearance of 

 certain species from Great Britain was attributable. Dr. Bailey ex- 

 hibited a large number of Coleoptera, the result of the day's collecting. 

 Mr. Prince, Lepidoptera to illustrate his paper. The President, a 

 long series of Avyynnis /la/iliia and Mditmi arteiiiis. Mr. Pierce, Vanessa 

 c-album and var. Iintchinsnni. Mr. Webster, pieces of wood infested by 

 Cossiis liynipevda from a garden at Huyton. 



AnmuiL Meeting, Monday, January llth, 1897. — The President, Mr. 

 S. J. Capper, in the chair. Mr. F. N. Pierce, Hon. Sec. pro. tern,, 



