214 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Ktudes de Lepidopterologie Compae^e. — In an article entitled 

 " Nature Study and War," the writer, a member of our staff, 

 reviews at lenf^th Mr. Oberthtir's classic work in 'The Times Literary 

 Supplement ' of Thursday, August 2Gth. 



SOCIETIES. 



The Entomological Society of London. — Wednesday, April 1th, 

 1920.— Mr. W. G. Sheldon, F.Z.S., Vice-President, in the Chair.— 

 j\lr. C. F. C. Beeson, Indian Forest Service, Forest Eecorder 

 Institute, Dehra Dun, U.P., India; Capt. Bushell, Imperial Bureau 

 of Entomology, Natural History Museum, South Kensington, S.W. 7; 

 Major H. C. Gunton, M.B.E., Hobart, Gerrard's Cross, Bucks; 

 Messrs. Owen Huth-Walters, M.A., Knoll Cottage, Uff'ord, Wood- 

 bridge, Suffolk ; Percy I. Lathy, Curator to Mme. Hornack-Fournier, 

 90, Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris ; and Prof. Benedicto Eaymundo, 

 Director of the Museum of the Agricultural Society of Kio di 

 Janeiro, Kio di Janeiro, Brazil, were elected Fellows of the Society. 

 — Exhibitions : Mr. Bedwell exhibited a specimen of the beetle 

 Otiorrliynckns ligustici, L., taken near Ventnor, one of the rarest of 

 the British weevils, of which there has been no recent record. — Dr. 

 J. C. Mottram, F.Z.S., and Dr. B. A. Cockayne, D.M., gave a demon- 

 stration of fluorescence in Lepidoptera by ultra-violet radiation. In 

 view of the interest which physicists have taken in the brilliant 

 coloration of many birds and insects in an endeavour to explain 

 them, the examination in ultra-violet radiation would go far to 

 decide whether or no fluorescence played any part in these brilliant 

 colours. The first insects examined were various Lyca^nida) and 

 other iridescent species, it having been suggested that their colour 

 is due to a fluorescent pigment, including Agriades coridon and 

 A. thetis and a MorpJio, as examples of iridescent blues. Purples 

 and purplish-biues were represented by Ajmtura ilia, Tcrinos poros, 

 Isamia supcrha, Elymnias casiplwne and the Castniid moth Cyclosia 

 avipliatum, copper by Chrysoplianus rutilus, Bumicia phlcsas and 

 a male Zegris chrysomallus, and blue-green and green by Papilio 

 blumei, Zygcena Jilipendnlce, Ino statices and others. Some Pyrales, 

 which showed a mother-of-pearl iridescence, the pearly underside 

 of Agraulis vemdia, and the metallic Phisia festuccB, P. chrysitis, 

 P. vioneta and Spatalia phisiotis had been examined, but none of 

 these showed any fluorescence. Later on most of the British moths 

 and a large number of tropical butterflies and moths belonging to 

 widely different groups had been tested, but only a very small 

 proportion proved to be fluorescent. The discovery raises the 

 question of whether the fluorescence is of any value to the insects. 

 It is generally accepted that the male of Hepiialus huviuli is 

 coloured white in order to attract the female during his hovering 

 flight at dusk. The fact that the white is fluorescent probably aids 

 the female, which is non-fluorescent, in her search. It is interesting 

 that the white males from the Shetlands are much less fluorescent 



