22 
Watural history Section. 
The average attendance at the meetings of this Section was 
slightly larger than in the previous year. There was also a 
notable increase in number of exhibits shown. The Secretary 
notes with satisfaction the increasing interest members have 
manifested in contributing to the programme of the meetings. 
The Society’s entomological cabinet has been cleared and disin- 
fected. Members are reminded that the representative collection of 
local moths and butterflies is to be commenced this current year. 
Seven meetings were held in 1908 at Stanfield House as follows :— 
Friday, January roth. Mr. C. O. Bartrum, B.Sc., General 
Secretary, in the chair. 
Mr. Geo. P. Wight exhibited Ferns, collected by the expedition 
to Misiones in 1894, and photographs of the Forest Growth and 
River Falls of that district. 
Mr. Herbert Goodchild, M.B.O.U., exhibited the skins of a 
Humming Bird and some allied species from South America, and 
of two British Goldfinches. 
Mr. K. I. Marks, F.R.M.S. exhibited under his microscope 
Synchaeta pectinata. 
Professor F. Y. Edgeworth M.A., D.C.L., read a paper 
on “Further Observations on Bees and Wasps.’’ He 
first gave data obtained by the then Sir John Lubbock on the time 
taken by wasps to load honey, which were corroborated by his 
own observations of wasps loading marmalade. He had also 
made investigations as to the time occupied in journeys from and to 
the nest, by two methods of calculation in which he ascertained 
that the journeys varied with outside conditions from thirteen to 
thirty-five minutes. 
Friday, February 14th. Mr. P. E. Vizard, Vice-President, in 
the chair. 
Mr. Montagu F. Hopson, F.L.S., F.E.S., exhibited a case of 
Melitea aurinia (the Marsh Fritillary). 
Mrs. Champneys exhibited a Life History of Bombyx vulpi (the 
Fox Moth), also Ascalphus italicus from Switzerland, and a number 
of butterflies taken in Frognal. 
Mr. James A. Simes read a paper on ‘‘ The Butter- 
flies of Central and South Eastern Europe,’’ with lantern 
illustration. During the summer in Switzerland, butterflies were 
f 
