95 



A pupa-skin of Ditula angustiorana, projecting from the interior of one of the 



shoots of yew exhibited at the February meeting. 

 A pupa-skin of Cochylis Francillana, and a section of a dry stem of an umbellife- 

 rous plant, in which the larva had fed. 

 A pupa-skin of Paedisca bilunana, with a catkin of birch, inside which the larva fed. 

 Dry capsules of Saxifraga granulata, gathered at Southend, in which he had found 



pupa; which produced Sphaleroptera Ictericana. 

 It was somewhat singular that all the six or eight specimens of this insect that had 

 appeared were males ; the females (longana, Hmv) he had reared from larvae found 

 on Aster Tripolium growing near Gravesend, which quitted the plant prior to changing 

 to pups ; so that granting the larvae of the pupae found in the capsules of Saxifraga 

 granulata had fed therein, it would appear, judging from the instances in question, 

 either that the sexes fed on different plants, or that these two insects had been erro- 

 neously united as one species. It was not safe to speak positively without further ex- 

 perience, but it would at least seem that if there were but one species, the larvae were 

 not only polyphagous, but had different habits on different plants ; in one case chang- 

 ing to pupae in the seed-capsule of the plant, in the other quitting the plant and re- 

 tiring to the earth. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited Chrosis Audouinana from Black Park, Psyche reticella 

 from Sheerness, and Eupithecia tenuiata, bred from sallows. 



The President directed the attention of the meeting to the descriptions of the win- 

 ter insects of New York by Dr. Asa Fitch ; specimens of the greater part of which were 

 intended to be presented to this Society. The following are extracts from the paper. 

 " It is the object of the following paper, to describe those insects of Eastern New 

 York, which occur in their perfect state in the winter, and are peculiar to that season 

 and the early part of spring. They are objects of curiosity, as coming forth to our 

 view in full maturity and vigour, at that time in the year when almost every other 

 member of the animal kingdom is reposing in torpidity under the chilling influence 

 of solstitial cold. In an economical aspect, they possess but little importance, their 

 period of life being limited to that season when the field furnishes no herbage, the gar- 

 den no flowers, and the orchard no fruits, on which they can prey. They are chiefly 

 interesting, therefore, merely as objects of scientific research — as forming integral parts 

 of that vast array of animated beings, with which the Father of Life has populated 

 our world, and rendered it vocal with his praise. 



" A few words respecting the analogies of the two first species here described, may 

 not be devoid of interest to the general reader. A small insect, destitute of wings, 

 and bearing some resemblance to a flea in its general aspect, is found in the winter 

 season, upon the snow in the northern part of Europe, and also occurs upon the Alps 

 and the Harz mountains. It has been known for nearly a century, and from its sin- 

 gularly anomalous characters, naturalists have been much perplexed to determine in 

 which particular family of the insect tribes it might with the most propriety be pla- 

 ced. Linnaeus was the first to classify and name it. He regarded it as possessing 

 more analogies with the species associated in his genus Panorpa, than with any other 

 insects, and accordingly arranged it with them, bestowing upon it the specific name 

 hyemalis. But, inasmuch as it differed from the Panorpidae in some prominent par- 

 ticulars, such as possessing the faculty of leaping, and being furnished with an ovipo- 

 sitor similar to many grasshoppers and crickets, Panzer, at a subsequent day, placed 

 it under the genus Gryllus. More recent naturalists, however, have concurred in the 



