SOCIETIES. 275 



summer. I bred one from a caterpillar I found on a pear-tree. 

 Aporopliila nigra and Agrotis smicia have been very common. 

 B. consortaria and D. hamula came to sugar in the garden. 

 P. dictceoides I have found on tree-trunks. Agrotis vestigialis is really 

 a coast insect, but I found a tine dark specimen one day inside a tent 

 on one of the heather districts. 



During the latter part of August, searchlight operations were 

 carried on on the Chobham Eidge. Now this ridge is a heather 

 and fir-tree clad hill some three miles long, whence a view can be 

 obtained from Sunningdale on the north to Guildford on the south, 

 and beyond Weybridge towards Croydon on the east. No light was 

 turned on until 9.30 p.m. My duties happened to bring me alongside 

 one of the searchlights, one using a fixed beam. The sight was so 

 extraordinary that even the men working the lights made remarks 

 upon it. From every side dozens of moths came sailing into the 

 light area. At a short distance off they all appeared white, just like 

 a number of swiftly moving snowflakes. Few, however, came directly 

 towards the light, and fewer still gave me any opportunity to dis- 

 cover the species they belonged to. Of those, however, that I could 

 identify, the majority of the Geometers were P. hippocastanaria ; 

 whilst the Noctuas were either ^4. tritici, A. obelisca, or A. agathina, 

 but which I could not be certain about, as I had no means of 

 capturing or killing any to enable me to examine them closely. It 

 was decidedly a night of lost opportunities. Once before in my life 

 have I experienced a similar disappointment, and that was during 

 the South African war when I found myself after a night march at 

 the outlying portions of the N'Gome Forest on the Zululand border, 

 w^here the sir seemed to be alive with various species of Papilio and 

 Charaxes, none of which I could catch, as a butterfly-net and a large 

 killing-bottle are not part of the outfit of an officer in the Mounted 

 Infantry ! — B. Tulloch (Captain, King's Own Yorkshire Light In- 

 fantry) : Aldershot, October 12th, 1908. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — Wednesday, October 7th, 

 1908. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, President, in the chair. Mr. James J. 

 Joicey, of 62, Finchley Eoad, London, N.W., and Mr. Eobt. M. Prideaux, 

 of Woodlands, Brasted Chart, Seyenoaks, were elected Fellows of the 

 Society. — Mr. W. G. Sheldon brought for exhibition a case containing 

 butterflies from Andalusia taken in the spring of this year, as 

 described in the ' Entomologist, with the striking aberration of 

 Melanargia iyies, showing a strong melanic tendency. — Dr. Herbert 

 Charles showed a remarkable aberration of Dryas paphia taken by 

 him in the New Forest in July last. With the exception of the 

 borders and the bars all the wings were suffused with deep velvety 

 brown triangular patches, the maculations being entirely absorbed 

 therein.— Mr. Hugh Main showed living larvae of Blatta germanica 

 to illustrate their colourless condition on first emergence. — Mr. H. 

 St. J. Donisthorpe exhibited examples of {a) Agrilus higuttatus, F., 



