Zoological Society. 395 
The following extracts from the observations of Mr. William 
Curtis in the year 1800 refer chiefly to this species, or to A. 
Malve, on columbine : 
“Tn very cold weather Aphides are oviparous, for this obvious 
reason: the eggs are capable of resisting cold more powerfully 
than the young. On the 22nd of November I found a con- 
siderable number of eggs which had been deposited in some 
auricula plants by a small green Aphis, which infests plants very 
generally, while the same species, on a geranium that I kept 
within doors, produced young. In mild winters I have observed 
im the month of January the same species of Aphis in great 
numbers on the same species of Primula, without doors, and all 
the females viviparous. These are facts that prove that all 
Aphides are not oviparous and viviparous at the same season, 
but that some may be wholly viviparous; that all such as are 
both oviparous and viviparous do not lay eggs towards the mid- 
dle of autumn, nor at all during the winter, unless a certain 
degree of cold takes place.” ‘Seasons sometimes occur very 
irregularly indeed, on an average, perhaps, once in four or six 
years, in which they (the Aphides) are multiplied to such an 
extent that the usual means of diminution fail in preventing 
them from doimg irreparable injury to certain crops. In 
severe winters we have no doubt but that Aphides are very con- 
siderably diminished ; in very mild winters we know that they 
are very considerably increased ; for they not only exist during 
such seasons, but continue to multiply.” “ The common green 
Aphis, which is so generally destructive, lives during the winter 
season on such herbaceous plants as it remained on during the 
autumn, either in its egg or perfect state. Ifthe weather be mild, 
it multiphes greatly on such herbage ; as the spring advances, 
in May the males and females of these insects acquire wings: 
and thus the business of increase, hitherto confined, is widely 
and rapidly extended.” 
[To be continued. ] 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
March 27, 1849.—Wm. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
MonoGRAPH OF THE LARGE AFRICAN SPECIES OF NOCTURNAL 
LEPIDOPTERA BELONGING OR ALLIED TO THE GENUS SATUR- 
nia. By J. O. Westwoop, F.L.S. erc. (Continued from 
p- 306. 
Section C. 
Sp. 13. Sarurnia Epimetuea. SV. alis anticis subfalcatis ; sub- 
JSuscis striga communi subapicali obscura extus pallide griseo 
