through the intervening spaces. Fore-wing beloM^ as above 

 except that the basal area is orange, a patch of the same colour 

 entering the cell. Inner margin greyish black. Hind-wing 

 below as above except that the marginal intersj^aces are 

 whitish and not orange. Exp. 65 mm. 



Hob. Venezuela: San Esteban Valley,23.xii.20(Tf . J./i'fli/e). 



The Food Preferences of Vespa vulgaris. — Mr. W, J. 

 Lucas said : — 



" On November 13, 1922, my attention was taken by a 

 large number of flies sunning themselves on an oak fence 

 facing south along the boundary of Esher Common in Surrey. 

 Most were large — blow-flies or their like — but some were 

 smaller. While watching I noticed a wasp hunting on the 

 wing over the surface of the fence, evidently in pursuit of the 

 flies, which it often approached (though it sometimes made 

 for the nails in mistake !). At length the wasp pounced on 

 one of the smaller flies — a metallic blue-green one— and went 

 down to the ground with it, where I sought and found it at 

 once. It had, however, released the fly and caught a small 

 spider, having made a very rapid change. Both victims 

 were paralysed, but the fly was not quite dead though the 

 sjHder appeared to be so. The three specimens were given to 

 Prof. Poulton for the Predaceous Insect Series he is forming in 

 Oxford. He considers this to be a very pretty case of prefer- 

 ence in the matter of prey. Such things are rarely met with, 

 although they must always be occurring in Nature. A. H. 

 Hamm identifies the wasp as a worker of Vespa vulgaris L. 

 and the fly as a male of Euphoria cornicina F. ; Dr. A. Kandell 

 Jackson says the spider is a 9 of Meta segmentata Clerck, an 

 orb-weaver, probably not quite mature." 



Varieties of British Lepidoptera. — Mr. L. W. Newman 

 exhibited a long and very varied series of Lycaena thetis both 

 upper and undersides including fine striated and obsoleta forms 

 and colour variations in the male, all taken at Folkestone Sep- 

 tember and October 1922. Also for comparison a series of 

 1921 specimens, the undersides of which instead of being the 

 usual steel-grey have all a distinct reddish colour, which clearly 

 points to the fact that weather conditions have a considerable 

 effect upon the undersides of this species. Also long and varied 



