SOCIETIES. 207 



insect found in Northern Italy ? It would interest me very much to 

 know. I broke my journey at Verona, where Papilio podalirms 

 hovered lazily over the flowers in the Piazza Independenza. Tliis 

 insect, together with P. machaon, was quite common at Lugano on 

 May 2nd, selecting the very top of Monte San Salvatore as its chief 

 playground. At this same elevation were E. cardamines, P. megcera 

 and Cupido minimus, also a large Argynnis which I failed either to 

 catch or identify. On the lower slopes of the mountain P. napi, 

 P. brassiccB, P. rap(B, E. cardamines, L. sinapis, C. minimus, P. icarus, 

 Chrysophanus dorilis var. suhalpina and V. io were common, with an 

 occasional -ZlieZei(^(Z athalia, M. aurinia{?), Argynnis eiiphrosyne, worn 

 P. megcera and P. egeria (the females of this species with the light 

 spots enormous), and of course P. podalimis. On my homeward 

 journey I saw nothing of interest except Colias liyale near Lucerne. 

 — John B. Hicks ; Stoneleigh, Elmfield Road, Bromley, Kent, 

 June 16th, 1914. 



[There is no authentic record, I believe, of the occurrence of 

 G. myrmidone in Italy, but it has been reported from Carinthia, and 

 its area of distribution over S.-E. Hungary is wide. — H. R.-B.] 



SOCIETIES. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society.— Ifa?/ lUh, 1914.— Mr. B. H. Smith, B.A., F.E.S., Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. B. S. Williams, on " The Thysanoptera," and 

 showed lantern-slides and specimens under the microscope in illus- 

 tration.— Mr. Hocking exhibited branches of the common furze from 

 Danbury Common, which had been covered by a dirty white web 

 p,nd killed by an attack of countless numbers of Tetranychus linteanus, 

 an extremely small mite which congregated in reddish brown dust 

 like patches. Mr. Step had seen a similar attack of a mite on lime 

 at Mickleham. — Mr. B. Adkin, aberrations of Colias edusa, including 

 a male with very pale marginal bands one half the usual size, and a 

 yellowish form of the var. helice. 



May 28th. — The President in the chair. — Mr. Buckstone, one 

 male and three female hybrids of the cross Nyssia zonaria male and 

 Apocheima hispidaria female. The larvse were very like those of the 

 latter species and were constitutionally weak, only four imagines 

 resulting from some three hundred fertile ova. — Mr. West (Green- 

 wich), a specimen of the extremely rare Hemipteron Pygolampis 

 bidentata, taken by him in the New Forest in May. Only one speci- 

 men had previously been captured in Britain. — Mr. Newman, a 

 living pupa of Strymon pruni, which closely resembles bird's excre- 

 ment. — Mr. Gahan, examples of a mealy-bug, both sexes of which 

 had occurred two years running on flowering currant in his garden 

 at Bedford Park. It was supposed to be Pseudococcus citri, a hot- 

 house species. — Mr. K. 0. Blair read a paper on " Luminous Insects," 



