130 



others of the form that had been variously called "lilac," "lead- 

 colour," " French grey " and " black," and which it had been 

 asserted by one and another was a hybrid between bellarqus and 

 coridun and bellargns and icanis; but he was aware of no evidence 

 to support these suggestions and he thought it far mote likely that 

 if the question were thoroughly worked out a solution, both in this 

 and the " green " form would be found in some constitutional 

 character. The females showed much variation in the amount of 

 blue scaling of fore- and hindwings and in the intensity of the 

 marginal red lunules, they being in some specimens practically 

 absent while in others they were so strongly produced as to form 

 almost uninterrupted broad red bands. There was also much 

 variation in the spotting of the undersides in both sexes. In 

 this species as in A. coridon, variation appeared to be greater in 

 the specimens from the North Downs than in those from the South 

 Downs. 



Mr. W. J. Kaye exhibited a cabinet drawer containing series of 

 the three known species of the genus Acherontia, viz., atropus, styx, 

 and lachesis together with coloured maps showing the distribution 

 of each, also preserved larvae and a pupa case of atropos. It was 

 remarked that lachesis and styx occurred together sometimes. All 

 three species in the larval stage were greatly attached to the Solan- 

 acefe, although in the case of atropos a very great number of plants 

 of different orders had been recorded as foodplants. Although 

 atropos was occasionally taken in some numbers in Britain, it was 

 essentially an African species. Dr. Jordan, in Seitz' Alacro-Lepi- 

 doptera says that while the larvfe are often infested with tachinids 

 they seem to be avoided by European ichneumons. This remark 

 is probably reprinted from Bartel, for Tutt, in vol. iv. of British 

 Lepidoptera, p. 434, gives a number of species of Ichneumonidae 

 including Ichneumon yrossorius, Amblyteles la)ninatorius, A, 

 palliatorius, A. cerinthius and Trogus lutorius, which have been 

 bred in this country from A. atropos. 



Mr. H. Worsley-Wood exhibited a long series of Calliiiwrpha 

 qxiadripunctaiia (hera), bred this year and including many of the 

 form ab. lutescens, and also several intermediate forms. 



The Rev. G. Wheeler exhibited :— 



(a) A series of Plebeius argyrognomon var. armoricanns from N. 

 Brittany taken early in June, 1914; remarkable for the dark ground 

 colour and pronounced orange bands of the underside, one of the 

 males showed obsolescent spotting, and all three females had the 

 spots either elongated or to some extent confluent. 



