134 THE BNTOMOLOQIS'I. 



niavius, Mylothris rhodope, Lachnoptera, iole, Salamis anacardii, 

 Precis octavia, Catuna canohita, Vanessa harmonica, &c. — Mr. Sich 

 exhibited and read notes on the section of the genus Tinea, contain- 

 ing T. fulvimitrella, T. arcella, T. corticella, T. parasitella, T. jncarella, 

 T. granella, T. cloacella, T. albipunctella, T. caprimulgella, T. nigri- 

 pimctella, and T. confusella. — ^Hy. J. Turner, Hon. Bep. Secretary. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. — Meeting 

 held February 11th, 1908, at the Royal Institution, Colquitt Street, 

 Liverpool. — R. Wilding, Esq., in the chair. — Mr. W. Mansbridge, 

 F.E.S., read a paper entitled "Variation in Lepidoptera," in which 

 he enumerated the different classes of variation as generally under- 

 stood by lepidopterists, and referred especially to a phase of variation 

 which has not evoked the amount of interest its importance warrants, 

 viz. colour changes from yellow or ochreous to red or brown and 

 modifications of these. — The author considered these variations as 

 proceeding upon parallel lines to melanism and probably arising in a 

 similar way ; first by variation from a commonly occuring form in 

 tlie Darwinian sense, and secondly by mutations or sudden leaps in 

 the sense enunciated by De Vries. — Putting on one side the first as 

 more or less affecting all species, the author showed how practically 

 all definite melanic forms falling in the second class (of which we 

 have records) have, when first noticed, been of very local occurrence — 

 as the majority still are — a few only having spread in comparatively 

 recent times over large areas, and noted when this had been the case 

 that the particular species, e. g. Tephrosia bi^indularia var. delamer- 

 ensis, Amphidasys betularia var. doubledayaria, Hybernia marginaria 

 var. fuscata, and Diwnea fagella, black forms, are common and 

 generally distributed, so that transported specimens could easily 

 continue their race wherever they might be carried. — The author 

 broadly classes all instances of melanochroism and leucochroism as 

 Darwinian modifications, and all cases of melanism and albinism as 

 well as yellow to red, or red to yellow, and similar changes where the 

 break is sudden, as mutations or De Vriesian variations, and concludes 

 that they have arisen in this way and then increased and spread, or 

 vice versa, accordingly as local conditions were favourable or the 

 reverse. — A capital exhibition of varieties of local forms of Lepid- 

 optera was made by the members in illustration, and a discussion 

 ensued, in the course of which Messrs. F. N. Pierce, Dr. J. Cotton, 

 Dr. Tinne, Robert Tait, junr.. Dr. Wm. Bell, and R. Wilding con- 

 curred generally in the views set forth in the paper. 



March 15th, 1908.— Mr. R. Newstead, A.L.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. — -The evening was devoted to an exhibition of Boarmia repandata 

 and its varieties. Long series of the moth from various localities, 

 chiefly from the North of England and from Wales, were shown by 

 Mr. Robert Tait, junr., Mr. C. F. Johnson, and Mr. Wm. Mansbridge. 

 The rich dark mottled forms from Delamere Forest ; the greyish- 

 white blotched race with the locally rare melanic aberration, also with 

 white blotches, from Penmaenmawr ; melanic varieties from Mansfield 

 and Huddersfield ; as well as absolutely black aberrations from 

 Knowsley, Lancashire ; the common London forms from Epping Forest 

 and Wimbledon ; var. conversaria from North Cornwall and New 



