103 



One brood : Male melanic, female red. 



Result. — 17 melanic. 

 Two broods : Male red, female red. 



Result. — 26 red. 



DECEMBER 14th, 1905. 



The President in the Chair. 



Messrs. Harrison and Main exhibited a series of Cleoceris 

 viminalis, bred from larvas taken in June at Windermere, 

 showing a considerable range of variation from the ordinary 

 pale grey form to very dark, together with a few specimens 

 taken at Barmouth, all of the light grey form. They also 

 showed a series of Plusia moneta bred this year from larvae 

 obtained at Chertsey and at Reigate. 



Mr. B. Stonell exhibited a series of melanic specimens of 

 Phigalia pedaria (pilosaria) from Delamere Forest, Lyccena 

 avion from N. Cornwall, Nonagria arundinis {dissoluta) from 

 Norfolk, N. canncc from Norfolk, a series of Polyommatus 

 icarus (alexis) females with male coloration, melanic Odonto- 

 pera bidentata from Skelminthorpe, very dark varieties of 

 Camptogramma bilincata from Shetland, and Enpithecia perno- 

 tata taken at Loughton in 1876. 



Dr. Chapman exhibited two larvae found by Mr. H. 

 Murray recently at Carnforth. He (Dr. Chapman) took 

 them to be Nenieophila plantaginis, though he had never seen 

 such larvae before. Mr. Murray, who had seen thousands of 

 N. plantaginis larvae, did not think they were. Their colour- 

 scheme was exactly that of N. plantaginis. In size, they 

 looked much larger and thicker than full-grown N. plantaginis. 

 This seemed to be due to the great density of the hairy 

 covering, which was, perhaps, little longer than ordinary 

 N . plantaginis had when full grown, but the hairs were so abun- 

 dant and crowded that the larvae looked solid right out to the 

 ends of the hairs, thus seeming to be 14 mm. (over half an 

 inch) in diameter. He remarked " I can find no English 

 authority to say that N. plantaginis ever hibernates except 

 small (probably about 4th instar), but one continental one 

 (Dubois) also says it hibernates more rarely as full grown. 

 I take these to be such larvae, and suppose them to have a 

 much denser hairy covering than the ordinary full-grown 

 larvae, just as I found A rctia caja, when hibernating in certain 

 instars, developed a dense clothing not met with in any other 



