64 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



E. cardamines. He pointed out that it was much smaller than the 

 latter species, and that the discoidal spot was placed, as in E. turritis 

 and E. gruneri, at the juncture of ■ the orange and white spaces, and 

 not, as in E. cardamines, well within the orange tip. Mr. Tutt also 

 exhibited and read notes on specimens of Noctua dahJii, from Cheshire, 

 Essex, Yorkshire, Aberdeenshire, and other counties. The variation 

 in the specimens was said to be partly due to sexual dimorphism, and 

 partly to their geographical distribution. Herr Jacoby read a letter 

 received from Mr. Buxton Forman, one of the Assistant Secretaries of the 

 Post Office, to the effect that the Postal Union had decided to make a 

 rule not to allow natural history specimens to be sent by sample post, 

 which was intended for the transmission of bona fide trade patterns or 

 samples of merchandise, and consequently that the forwarding of such 

 specimens at the sample rate would in future be irregular. Lord Walsing- 

 ham stated that he had had a long correspondence with the Post Office 

 authorities on the subject, and that the late Mr. Eaikes, when Post- 

 master-General, promised him in 1891 that such specimens should, so 

 far as the British Post Office was concerned, be transmitted at the 

 sample rates ; and a letter to the same effect, from the late Sir Arthur 

 Blackwood, when Secretary of the Post Office, was published in the 

 Proceedings of the Society for 1891. Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited, for 

 Mr. A. J. Hodges, a specimen of Hydrilla palustris, from Wicken Fen ; 

 also specimens of Caradrina ambifina, from the Isle of Wight. He re- 

 marked that of the latter, one specimen has tbe hind margin of tbe right 

 fore wing indented, and the wing broadened as though from an injury 

 to the pupa. In this wing the margins of the large orbicular and 

 reniform stigmata had become so joined that the dividing lines had 

 disappeared, and the stigmata were fused into one irregvilarly-formed 

 blotch. Mr. McLachlan exhibited, on behalf of Mr. G. F. Wilson, 

 F.R.S., of Weybridge, a "grease-band" which had been tied round 

 trees to prevent the females of Cheimatobia brunmta from ascending the 

 trunks for the purpose of oviposition ; the band was thickly covered 

 with the bodies of the females, together with a few males. Surgeon- 

 Captain Manders exhibited a pair of Chelura bifasciata, from the Shan 

 States, and called attention to the " assembling " habits of the male, 

 some hundreds of which were attracted by the numerous females 

 which emerged from the cocoons at sunset. Mr. B. A. Bower 

 exhibited a beautiful variety of ZyfffBna lonicerce, Esp., having the 

 spots confluent, taken at Cbattenden Wood, North Kent, in June last ; 

 also a specimen of Incnrvaria tenuicornis, Stn., taken at Chislehurst, in 

 May, 1893. Mr. H. Goss exhibited, for Mr. F. W. Urich, of Trinidad, 

 a series of males, females, and workers of Sericomi/rme.v opactis, Mayr, 

 a species of fungus-growing and fungus-eating ant. Colonel Swiuhoe 

 read a paper entitled " A List of the Lepidoptera of the Khasia Hills, 

 Part HI." Mr. C. J. Gahan read a paper entitled " On the Longicorn 

 Coleoptera of the West India Islands." Mr. F. W. Urich communicated 

 a paper entitled "Notes on the fungus-growing and eating habit of Serico- 

 myrme.v opacus, Mayr." Prof. E. B. Poulton read a paper, by Prof. E. 

 B. Titchener, entitled " An apparent case of Sexual Preference in a 

 male Insect." The Rev. H. S. Gorham communicated a paper 

 entitled " Notes on Herr A. Kuwert's ' Revision der Cleriden-gattung 

 Omadius, Lap.' " 



