300 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — October 6th, 1897. — The Kev. 

 Canon Fowler, F.L.S., Vice-President, in the chair. Mr. W. H.Bennett, 

 of 15, Welhngtou Place, Hastings, and Mr. B. Tomlin, of 59, Liverpool 

 Eoad, Chester, were elected Fellows of the Society. Mr. Merrifield 

 exhibited specimens of Aporia cratmjl and Argynnis paphia, subjected 

 to high and low temperature during the pupal stage. In both species 

 the examples which had been cooled were much darkened. Mr. Tutt 

 showed for comparison the extremes of over 500 examples of A. cmtcegi 

 bred or captured in Kent between 1860 and 1868, but none were so 

 marked as those which had been artificially treated. Mr. Tutt showed 

 a remarkable melanic aberration of Nemeophila plantaginis, in which all 

 trace of the pale ground colour of the hind wings was lost ; also a 

 series oi Abraxas ulmata captured during the past summer by Mr. Dutton 

 in the neighbourhood of York. Previously aberrations of the species had 

 been rare, but a large number of this series were suffused with blue-grey 

 or smoky ochreous. Many of the aberrant forms were cripples. He 

 also showed, for Dr. Eiding and Mr. Bacot, bred specimens of both 

 broods of Tephrosia bistortata from Clevedon, Somerset; and bred 

 specimens of T. crepxiscidaria and its ab. delamerensis from York. 

 Hybrids were exhibited between T. bistortata (male and female) and 

 T. crepuscular ia (male and female), between the former and the form 

 delamerensis (male and female), and between the two latter crosses. 

 The offspring of the first crosses were roughly divisible into two groups 

 following the parent forms ; those of the second tended to become mon- 

 grel in appearance. Hybridization led to the production of continuous 

 broods, and certain broods tended to produce males only. The colora- 

 tion became more intense with increase in the duration of the pupal 

 stage. Dr. Dixey drew attention to the experiments on hybridization 

 recorded ia Dr. Standfuss's ' Handbuch der Palaarktischen Gross 

 Schmetterlingen,' and gave a summary of the results. Mr. Champion 

 showed, for the Rev. J. H. Hocking, an example of the long-bodied 

 moth Satacoma agrionata, from New Zealand ; also one of Protopaussus 

 walkeri, Waterh., from China, the subject of a later communication; 

 and specimens of the rare Emblethis verbasci, F., from the Scilly Isles. 

 Mr. Jacoby showed a Halticid beetle with a singular abnormality, the 

 side-margin of the prothorax being split and embracing a long process. 

 Dr. Chapman exhibited and described varieties of Spilosoma lubricipeda 

 and Acronycta psi, bred by Dr. Riding. In the latter species the 

 characters of the different races were very stable. Mr. Burr exhibited 

 a Mantis, Phyllocrania illudens, from Madagascar, with a close resem- 

 blance to the dead leaves among which it lived, some of which were 

 shown with it. A new British coccid, Kermes variegatus, from Kent, 

 was exhibited by Mr. Waterhouse. Mr. G. C. Griffiths read a paper 

 on *' The Frenulum of the Lepidoptera." Mr. Kirkaldy communicated 

 a "Preliminary Revision of the Notonectidte, Part I."; and Mr. Water- 

 house the "Description of a new Coleopterous Insect of the family 

 Paussidae." 



[Reports of other Societies are unavoidably postponed until 

 December.] 



