314 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., '04 



bands first originated as a means of protective resemblance 

 and performed the same office as the striped primaries of many 

 arctians by counterfeiting the alternate lights and shadows of 

 plant stems or masses of dead vegetation. In the course of 

 natural development these bands became too prominent to be 

 longer available for concealment and thereupon served in a 

 directly contrary capacity, viz., to attract the attention of an 

 enemy and thus divert attack from the lesss showy but more 

 vital parts. In the course of natural selection moths possess- 

 ing the brightest hued secondaries would survive and thus the 

 character would be still, further encouraged and improved. 

 The practice of the members of this genus of boldly exposing 

 the secondaries at night, while engaged in feeding, would 

 seem to substantiate this theory. Whenever a formation, col- 

 oration, or maculation rendered the owner conspicuous for the 

 purpose of directing attack it might be classed as active or 

 aggressive, but where such characteristics served merely for 

 concealment they might be termed pa.ssive or negative. 



Discussion by the Society. Mr. Doll remembered seeing a 

 Catocala in which the primaries were tinged with the red hue 

 of the secondaries, and Mr. Franck another in which the 

 secondaries were black or red according to the direction of 

 view. 



May 7, 1903. — Eighteen persons present, Mr. Richard F. 

 Pearsall in the chair. Mr. Hulst Mead was elected a member. 



Dr. Call lectured upon the " Geological Preservation of In- 

 sects and the March of Insect Life upon the Earth." Insects 

 undoubtedly originated from the crustaceans. The indestruc- 

 tability, under favorable conditions, of chitin, of which in- 

 sects as well as crustaceans are largely composed, had tended 

 to preserve forms which existed probably millions of years 

 ago, and these were now found in the Swedish rocks of the 

 Cambrian Age and in the Lower Silurian in this country. In 

 addition perfect insects were often found imbedded in amber. 



Dr. Call exhibited specimens of amber containing among 

 others a fly, wasp, spider, and cockroach. Their presence 

 was explainable on the theory that having come in contact 

 with the sticky surface of this material while fresh they had 



