SOCIETIES. 71 



noticed that, althougli the pupae remained in the warm room in 

 which the larvae were reared, emergence ceased whenever frost set 

 in, and was not resumed until milder weather returned. — Dr. G. G. C. 

 Hodgson read a paper in which he advanced the tlieory that varia- 

 tions in climatic conditions tended to increase or decrease sexual 

 dimorphism ; from observations made and matei'ial collected during 

 a number of years he deduced the apparent facts that in hot sunny 

 years sexual dimorphism was increased, while in cold rainy years this 

 dimorphism was lessened. — S. T. Bell, Hon. Sec. 



Birmingham Entomological Society. — January 20th, 1908. — 

 Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, President, in the chair. — Mr. J. T. 

 Fountain showed larva of Lasiocavipa quercus L. from near Bar- 

 mouth, together under the Tacliinid parasites Tachina larvarmn, L., 

 which he had bred from it. — Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, a fine collec- 

 tion of African Papilionidae in three boxes. — Mr. C. J. Wainwright, 

 Platycheirus melanopsis Lw., female from Eiffelalp, Valais, Switzer- 

 land ; also Campsicnemus magius, Lw., and called attention to the 

 extraordinary tarsi in the male sex. — Colbran J. Wainwright, 

 Hon. Sec. 



Hertfordshire Natural History Society. — At the December 

 meeting of this Society, held at the County Museum, St. Albans, 

 Dr. John Morison, Vice-President, in the chair, Mr. A. E. Gibbs, the 

 Hon. Secretary, exhibited a small collection of butterflies received 

 from a correspondent in Japan, and compared the forms of the same 

 species found at the extreme eastern and western limits of the 

 Palaearctic Eegion. He pointed out that the Japanese insects were, 

 as a rule, larger in size and darker in colour than the British forms, 

 and exhibited specimens of Papilio machaon, Pieris rapce, P. napi, 

 Chrysophanus pihlmas, and others in illustration of this fact. At the 

 meeting of the same Society held on January 28th, Mr. Gibbs 

 exhibited a small collection of Diptera in four drawers, which Mr. 

 P. J. Barraud, Mr. T. P. Furnival and he had collected for and pre- 

 sented to the County Museum. The families which contained the 

 smaller species were very poorly represented, and Mr. Gibbs ex- 

 pressed the hope that some member of the Society would undertake 

 the study of them. — A. E. Gibbs, St. Albans. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



TJie Agricultural Journal of India. Vol. ii., parts i.-iv. (January, 

 April, July, October, 1907). 

 The entomological articles are by Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy, and 

 comprise "Surface Caterpillars," pp. 42-46 ; "Insect Pests of India," 

 pp. 109-115 ; " Locusts in India," pp. 238-245, plates xiv.-xx. ; 

 "Practical Remedies for Insect Pests," pp 355-363; and "The 

 Tse-Tse Fly in India," pp. 374-376. On the coloured plates illus- 

 trating the first-named articles are figures of Agrotis ypsilon, Rott., 

 and its early stages; also figures of A. flammatra, Schiff., E. spini- 

 fera, Schiff., and E. segetis, Hiibn. 



