14 MARINE ZOOLOGY. 



ami differed in some other minor respects from the normal conditions of 

 the species. 



In the evenings, after onr day's work was done, the examination and 

 comparison of our captures afforded gi-eat interest to the members ; and 

 Dr. Marshall, Professor Keeping, and Mr. Chas. Pumphrey were indefati- 

 gahle with their microscopes, and exliibitod and explained peculiarities of 

 structure and pointed out analogies and affinities. 



Such of the specimens as were not required were returned to the sea, 

 and the remainder were put up in spirits and preserved, as a nucleus for 

 our museum. 



If, as seems probable, another excursion is organised during this 

 year, it would be desiralile, for those interested, to give in their 

 names soon to Mr. John Morley, the Hon. Sec. of the Society, 

 Sherborne Road, Birmingham, so that a meeting may be held in 

 the early spring, and plans determined accordingly. If it is possible 

 to arrange for a v/eek in the month of June, or not later than the 

 tii-st week in July, opportunities would be afforded for the examinsition of 

 many most intoresting forms of marine life in the larval c-^ndition, not 

 to bo found in the autumn. It is suggested, that if a small steam launch 

 could be chartered for a week, much time would be saved, and dredging 

 might be attempted in deeper water than hitheito. In fact, more work 

 could be done, and it would be done in a better manner. A trawl 

 similar to tliat which Sir Wy\alle Thomson states proved so sei-viceable in 

 the Challenger Expedition might be used as well as the dredge and the 

 towing net. Some shore collecting might also be undertalieu with 

 advantage. 



LEPIDOPTERA AND THEIE CAPTORS IN THE 

 MIDLAND COUNTIES. 



KV THK REV. C. F. TH0rvNE\\7LL , M.A. 



The Lopidoptera of the Midland district have not hitherto received 

 the siune amount of attention which has been bestowed upon the same 

 cla.ss in other parts of England. It is true that some of the greatest 

 names ann.ng practical entomologists are to be foimd among the midland 

 collectors. Tlie name of the Piev. Joseph Greene naust always command 

 respect as that of the great authority on, and almost inventor of, pupa- 

 digging ; while another brother of the cloth, the Rev. H. H. Crewe, stands 

 unrivalled in his practical knowledge of the puzzling genus Eupithecia. 

 And another midland naturalist, I\Ir. Edwin Brown, of Burton, whose 

 collections have lately been dispersed in consequence of his lamented 

 death, stood eiiually high with either of the above-named for general 

 ac(pmintance not oidy with the Lopidoptera, but with Coleoptera, Diptera, 

 and indeed almost every family of the multitudinous race of insects. It 

 is not, then, for want of able and experienced collectors that this district 

 stands Ijelow some others, as for example the London, New Forest, and 

 Devonshire districts, fi'om tho Lepidopterist's point of Aiew. 



Nor again is it for want of sufficient nnitorial to work upon. The midland 

 counties include, indeed, many purely manufacturing neighbourhoods, where 

 it is hardly to be expected that Lopidoptera should tioui-ish, (though, for the 

 nuitter of that, oue entliusiastio collector pursues his avocations with 

 great success within a \ery short distance of the Staffordshire Potteries ;) 



