32 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb. 



men of Poecilochroma Lewisii, a Pentatomid bug from Japan, which, 

 when dampened with water, turned instantly from a dull green to a me- 

 tallic copper color. Mr. J. H. Leech exhibited a large number of Lepid- 

 optera from Mr. Pratt, of Ichang, China, which contained fifty-six new 

 butterflies and forty new moths. Mr. Elwes observed only two genera in 

 this collection not known to be found at Sikkiin. He called attention to 

 the similarity of the specie^ from India, China and Java. Mr. McLachlan 

 remarked on having lately received a dragonfly from Simla previously only 

 recorded from Pekin; and Mr. Distant stated that he had lately received a 

 species of Cicada from Hong Kong hitherto supposed to be confined to 

 Java. Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher exhibited a preserved specimen and draw- 

 ings of a variety of the larva of Sphinx ligustri. Mr. F. D. Godman 

 read a letter from Mr. Herbert Smith, containing an account of the Hy- 

 tnenoptera, Diptera, Heniiptera and Coleoptera recently collected in St. 

 Vincent, where he was employed under the direction of a committee of 

 the Royal Society appointed to investigate the natural history of the West 

 Indies [it is understood that a work on the lines of the superb " Biolog^a 

 Centrali-Americana" will in time be the product of this survey.] 



Mr. Elwes read a letter from Mr. Doherty descriptive of collecting at 

 light and sugar in the Naga Hills. Mr. Doherty expressed the opinion 

 that light used m out-of-the-way places repels rather than attracts; the 

 same applied to sugar, as insects required to be accustomed to these de- 

 coys, Col. Swinhoe said the attractive power of light depended on its in- 

 tensity and height above the ground. He had collected over three hundred 

 specimens of Sphingidce at electric light in Bombay in one night. Mr. J. 

 J. Walker had found electric lights very attractive in Panama. Mr. F. 

 Merrifield read a paper entitled, " Systematic Temperature Experiments 

 on some Lepidoptera in all their stages," and exhibited a number of speci- 

 mens in illustration. Darkness of color and markings in Ennotnos au- 

 tumnaria resulted from the subjection of the pupae to a ver>* low tempera- 

 ture. The same had occurred in Selenia il/ustraria, where the markings 

 had also been altered in a ver\' striking manner. Lord Walsingham ob- 

 served that exposure to cold in the pupa state appeared to produce a 

 darker coloring in the imago, and that forcing in that stage had an 

 opposite effect; that insects subjected to glacial conditions probably de- 

 rived some advantage from the development of dark or suffused coloring, 

 and that this advantage was, in all probability, the more rapid absorption 

 of heat. He believed an hereditary tendency in this direction was estab- 

 lished under glacial conditions, and that this would account for the preva- 

 lence of melanic forms m northern latitudes and at high elevations. 



H. Goss and W. W. Fowler, See's. 



E^^■OMOLOGlCAL News for January' was mailed Jan. 15, 1890. 



