29 



arllst by profession, would be liappy to enter into engagements witb any persons who 

 might require drawings of the larvae of any species bred by him. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited some cases, formed by the larvte of various South Austra- 

 lian Lepidoptera, including curiously ribbed cases of a species of Psyche. 



Mr. Lubbock exhibited some blind Ganimari, from a well at Brighton. He ob- 

 served that the eyes were absent or very rudimentary, as in Niphargus spelseus, from 

 which species, however, the present specimens appeared to differ in the form of the 

 posterior legs. They are probably identical with Gammarus subterraneus of Leach. 

 That naturalist, however, does not describe his specimens, and even suggests that they 

 might be only the young of the common freshwater species, which is evidently not the 

 case with those exhibited. The interesting fact of the presence of blind Amphipods 

 has now been ascertained in four different localities in this country, viz., London, 

 Maidenhead, Bromley (in Kent), and Brighton, and would probably be found to be 

 more common if those who observe them in their well-water would send them to this 

 Society or to any naturalist. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited some larvae of Lepidoptera preserved in hermetically sealed 

 glass tubes containing spirits, which had been forwarded to him by a glass-tube ma- 

 nufacturer in Halton Garden, who, he stated, would be happy to exchange similar 

 tubes for examples of British Lepidoptera, 



Mr. Westwood stated he had lately received some curious pale varieties of the 

 larvae of Acherontia Airopos, similar to that figured in Fuessly's 'Archives.' It would 

 be interesting to know whether that variety had occurred generally this season, and 

 whether it was owing to any peculiarity in the food of the larvae, or to the circum- 

 stance ihat the insect was near the period of its transformation, and had undergone a 

 change in its colour. 



Mr. Stainton remarked that several of his correspondents had taken the larvaj this 

 autumn, but all appeared to be of the ordinary colours. 



Mr. Dutton exhibited a curious variety of the female Polyommatus Adonis, having 

 the under side very dark and the ordinary ocelli nearly obsolete. He stated that he 

 lately noticed Steuopleryx hybridalis in great profusion on the cliffs at Eastbourne, 

 although on the previous and following days not a single example was to be seen. 

 He added that there was no perceptible atmospheric change during the three days to 

 account for this circumstance. 



Mr. Westwood brought for distribution amongst the members specimens of Lophy- 

 rus rufus. He had received a great quantity of larvae from one locality, all of which 

 produced females; from others, obtained near Weybridge, he had bred both sexes. 

 He observed that these instances of the occurrence of one sex in insects were 

 extremely interesting. Tt was a well-known fact that the queen bee at limes only 

 laid male eggs, which caused great derangement in the internal economy of the hive, 

 and frequently the destruction of the stock. A correspondent of his had lately pur- 

 chased some seeds of the Wellinglonia gigantea, from every one of which he had bred 

 females of a Chalcideous insect of the genus Callimome, which evidently had been 

 parasites of some Lepidoplerous larvae feeding in the seeds. Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, 

 had also only obtained females of the British ink-gall Cynips, from the galls which 

 he had kept in order to obtain the perfect insects; he had also obtained. a great num- 

 ber of females of the species of Callimome parasitic on the Cynips, and only a single 

 male. 



