93 

 OCTOBER 26th, 1905. 



The President in the Chair. 



Rev. E. Tarbat exhibited a very curious specimen of 

 Pseudoterpna pruinata (cytisaria) in which the usual green 

 colour was replaced by a rather glossy rich yellowish brown, 

 of a deeper colour in some parts of the fore-wings. The 

 specimen was in perfect condition, but somewhat small, and 

 was taken at Morthoe, North Devon, on a hillside near 

 the sea. 



Mr. Kaye exhibited an extremely light form of Boarmia 

 abietaria bred from a Box Hill larva. The ground colour 

 was very pale, and the dark markings were of about the 

 usual intensity, making the specimen most conspicuous in 

 contrast to the very dark forms bred at the same time. 



Mr E. Step exhibited a specimen of the so-called " vege- 

 table caterpillar " from New Zealand, and explained that the 

 larva of Hepialns virescens became the host of a fungus, 

 Cordiceps robertsii, which gradually filled up all the tissues of 

 the caterpillar, and finally sent forth a long slender shoot 

 from just behind the head. At the extremity of this shoot 

 about a third of the length is covered with the perithecia, 

 which contain the spores of the fungus. This New Zealand 

 species has long been familiar as one of the curiosities of 

 insect life ; but it is not so well known that one of the 

 British species of Cordiceps, C. militaris, similarly grows out 

 of lepidopterous pupae in the ground. 



Mr. Edwards exhibited ova of the cat flea (Pidex canis). 



Mr. West, of Greenwich, exhibited the following species of 

 Hemiptera : (1) Dry mm sylvaticus var. ryei, a rather un- 

 common form found among dead leaves and rubbish ; (2) 

 D. pilicomis, a very local species ; and (3) Bcrytus crassipes, a 

 rare species found under stones. All were from Box Hill. 



Mr. Step exhibited a series of photographs of groups of 

 flowers. 



The remainder of the meeting was devoted to an exhibition 

 of lantern slides by the members. Among the slides worthy 

 of special note were an adder, and a pollard willow having 

 eight kinds of woody undergrowth springing from its crest, 

 by Mr. Briault ; a mass of Mania maura hibernating in the 

 corner of a room, views of the " Silent Pool," Gomshall, 

 where the Society met in July, 1905, and the Vorticella, by 

 Mr. W. West of Ashtead ; the British heaths, the protective 



