SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 439 
of the old web. This explanation seems to meet the facts of the case in a 
way consistent with the known habits of spiders, while the idea that the 
spider rolled up its web and kept it in safety for a time and then unrolled 
and reset the identical lines is simply inconceivable.—O. P. CamBripGr 
(Bloxworth, Rectory, Dorset). ] 

SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF Lonpon. 
October 2, 1889.—The Right Hon. Lord Watstneuay, M.A., F.RB.S., 
President, in the chair. 
Mr. Arnold Umfreville-Henn, of Heaton Chapel Rectory, near Stockport, 
was elected a Fellow. 
Mr. F. P. Pascoe exhibited a number of species of insects of all orders, 
collected by himself during the past summer at Brindisi, and in Greece and 
the Ionian Islands. 
Mr. J. W. Douglas sent for exhibition specimens of Lygus viscicola, 
Puton, a species new to Britain, taken at Hereford, in September last, 
exclusively from mistletoe, by Dr. T. A. Chapman. 
Mr. R. M‘Lachlan exhibited nearly one hundred specimens of 
Trichoptera recently collected in Iceland by Mr. P. B. Mason. Only six 
species were represented, and of these five had been previously recorded 
from the island. He remarked on the great amount of variation existing 
in some of the species. 
Mr. E. B. Poulton exhibited a mounted specimen of the yellow powder 
from the cocoon of Clisiocampa neustria under a power magnifying 188 
diameters. The powder was thus seen to consist of crystals so minute that 
the form could only just be made out. He said the powder was present in 
a crystalline form in the malpighian tubules, and was discharged from the 
anus of the larva. A discussion ensued as to the functions of the mal- 
pighian tubes, &c., in which Mr. Stainton, Lord Walsingham, Mr. M. 
Jacoby, Mr. P. B. Mason, Mr. M‘Lachlan, and Dr. Sharp took part. 
Mr. Poulton also exhibited some photographs of living larves of Hemero- 
philla abruptaria, showing different depths of colour which had been 
induced by experiment; specimens of the larve preserved in spirit were 
also shown, '{together with water-colour representations of two varieties. 
He said that, as in other experiments of the kind, the larve had been 
rendered very pale by being surrounded by green leaves and stems only, 
whereas they became extremely dark when numbers of dark twigs were 
intermingled with the leaves of the food-plant. All were bred from eggs 
laid by the same female. 
Mr. F. Merrifield said that Dr. Chapman had recently obtained similar 
results from experiments on the larye of Hnnomos alniaria. 
