xxxviu 



Exhibitions, 8j-c, 

 The President exbiln'ted specimens of Vanessa Uiticae and Zygsena Filipendulae 

 from the Isle of Man, remarkable for their small size. The following note by the 

 captor, Mr. Edwin Birchall, was read : — 



" I captured about twenty specimens of Vanessa Urticse in the Isle of Man in June 

 last, all of the same diminutive size as the examples sent for exhibition. The outline 

 of the win^s is more angular than in English specimens, the black spots either larger 

 in proportion, or in the case of the two spots in the centre of the fore wings, actually 

 larger in the sqiall insects from the Isle of Man than in the large English ones, the 

 variation from the typical form being thus exactly the reverse of what occurs in the 

 Corsican subspecies Ichneusa, in which these spots are altogether wanting. Whether 

 some accidental cause has dwarfed the insects, or that we have here a distinct insular 

 variety, and the opportunity, as it were, of watching the origination of a new species, 

 future inquiry must decide. Zygaena Filipendulae also occurs in a very dwarfed con- 

 dition : this I have observed both in 1867 and 1868, and the specimens exhibited are 

 certainly the ordinary condition of that insect in the island. I hope entomologists, 

 who may visit the Isle of Man will collect other common species found there, as well 

 as the rare ones for which it has become celebrated, that a wider basis for generaliza- 

 tion than at present exists may be obtained." 



Mr. F. Smith inquired whether Vanessa Urlicce was always thus dwarfed in the 

 Isle of Man, or whether the smallness was one of the effects of the peculiarly hot 

 season of 1868? He believed that during the past season many Hymenoptera had 

 been observed in a dwarfed condition. 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir had noticed that the common white butterflies of the past 

 season were unusually small. 



Prof Westwood remarked that the diminutive size might perhaps be due to the 

 heat, and the consequent rapidity of development of the insects, which remained a 

 shorter time, and therefore ate less, in the larva state. 



Mr. R. L. Davis (who was present as a visitor) mentioned that he had a number 

 of pupse of Smerinthus ocellatus of very small size: the larvae had scarcely attained 

 more than half their usual growth when they were driven into the pupa slate by the 

 frost destroying their food. According to his experience, scarcity of food was generally 

 the cause of smallness. During the season of 1868 he had preserved for the cabinet 

 larva; of about sixty-five species of Lepidoplera, most of which (including some of the 

 diminutive Smerinthus ocellatus) were exbil)iled. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a specimen of Choeroeampa Celerio captured at Brighton 

 by Mr. Swayshind, on the evening of the 20th of September, hovering over Verbena 

 flowers ; and a moth from the British collection of the late Mr. Desvignes, ticketted 

 "immoraria. Hub." which it was suggested was an extraordinary variety of Strenia 

 clalhnita. 



The Secretary read a letter from Gunner John Wilson, of the Eoyal Artillery, 

 Woolwich, stating that he had bred a gynandromorphous specimen of Lasiocampa 

 Qiiercus: "it shows the chocolate wings and feathered antenna of the male on the 

 left side; on the right the wings are buff, and the antenna is single as in the female, 

 the abdomen thicker and not tufted as on the other." 



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