20 



Report of the Field Meeting held at Ranmore Common, 

 June 16th, 1906. 



By Edward Step, F.L.S. Read January 10th, 1907. 



Two special characteristics strike me in connection with the 

 field meetings I had to arrange this year : one an indisposition on 

 the part of members to notify their intention to be present until the 

 last minute, the other a failure to supply lists of captures. 



I feel bound to lay stress again on the first of these points, for at 

 this Ranmore meeting half a dozen members who had given 

 adequate intimation of attendance had to stand aside, and finally 

 get only half a meal, because they had been crowded out by those 

 who had not expressed any intention of being present, and who were, 

 therefore, not entitled to consideration. We have tried several 

 plans for meeting this difficulty, but so far have failed. I believe 

 the only real remedy is a return to the primitive condition of things 

 in which every member made his own commissariat arrangements. 



Except for the few who got on the ground in the morning, the 

 weather was far from favourable for collecting, being more or less 

 wet, and after tea exceedingly so. The flora of the common, which 

 agrees with the rest of the Reigate — Guildford range of the North 

 Downs, has been given in these " Proceedings " on several occasions, 

 and it seems unnecessary to repeat the list. One addition was made 

 to these, however, in a large colony of Adder's-tongue fern (Op/u'o- 

 glossum vulgatum), which had been discovered by the conductor's 

 youngest daughter a week earlier. 



A number of insects were taken, but no lists have been sent in 

 with the exception of a note from Mr. Turner, who writes : " The 

 larvae of Coleophora fuscedinella were abundant on elm, nut, etc. ; 

 C. lutipenella occurred on the oaks, and in one part of the lane the 

 larvae of C. gryphipennella were making their characteristic very pale 

 blotches on the rose leaflets." Most of the members were at one 

 time busy in examining the leaves of cowslips for the ova of 

 Nemeobius lucina, and all got a greater or lesser reward. 



