644 The Zoologist— March, 1867. 



Election of Members. 



Herbert Edward Cox, Esq., of Croydon, was elected a Member; and Yeend Duer, 

 Esq., of Cleygate House, Esher, an Annual Subscriber. 



Prizes for Essays on Economic Entomology. 



The Chairman announced that the Council had again resolved to ofTer two prizes 

 of five guineas each for Essays, of sufficient merit and drawn up from personal 

 observation, on the anatomy, economy or habits of any insect or group of insects espe- 

 cially serviceable or obnoxious to mankind. The Essays must be sent to the Secretary 

 at No. 12, Bedford Row, on or before the 30lh of November, 1867, when they will be 

 referred to a Committee to decide upon their merits; each must be indorsed with a 

 motto, and be accompanied by a sealed letter indorsed with the same motto aud 

 inclosing the name and address of the Author. 



Exhibitions, frc. 



Mr. Bond exhibited four specimens, two males and two females, of a Lasiocampa 

 bred by Mr. Robert Mitford from larva; found on the coast of Kent ; he regarded them 

 as merely a variety of Lasiocampa trifolii, differing from the normal form in colour 

 and in the antenna? of the male, though he was informed that the larva; also differed 

 and were of a golden colour. The insect might be supposed to bear the same relation- 

 ship to L. trifolii that L. Callunse bears to L. quercus, and had very much the appear- 

 ance to be expected in a hybrid between Lasiocampa trifolii and Odonestis potaloria. 

 Other bred specimens of L. trifolii, from Cumberland, Hants, Dorsetshire and Devon- 

 shire, were produced for comparison. 



Mr. Bond also exhibited several Fritillaries with unequally developed wings; and 

 a remarkable variety of Dianthcecia capsincola from York. 



Mr. Bond offered an explanation of the curious habit of Macroglossa stellatarum, 

 frequenting stone walls, <kc, as to which an enquiry was made at the previous 

 Meeting (Zool. S. S. 583). The object was to secrete itself in some hole or crevice : he 

 had often noticed that the insect had a morning and an afternoon flight, but in the 

 middle of the day grew tired, when it would seek out a wall or bank and creep up it 

 until it found a hole or cranny wherein to rest. 



Dr. Wallace corroborated this: wheu residing in the Isle of Wight he had observed 

 the humming-bird hawk-moth resting in crevices of mud banks, &c , and on one 

 occasion he had captured in a limpet-shell a specimen which was thus reposing. 



Prof. Weslwood exhibited a singular variety of Mamestra brassiere caught by Mr. 

 Briggs, of St. John's College, Oxford. Mr. Bond mentioned that he possessed a 

 similar specimen. 



Dr. Wallace said that on recently looking through Dr. Bree's collection of British 

 Lepidoptera he had detected a Platypteryx Sicula mixed up with P. falcataria. The 

 insect did not bear any label, and Dr. Bree had not any recollection of the capture of 

 the particular specimen, though he had no doubt that it had been taken by himself 

 some years ago along with P. falcataria in the neighbourhood of Stowmarket. If so, 

 this was a new locality for the species, which in this country had hitherto been known 

 to occur only in the neighbourhood of Bristol. 



