99 



he had reared them during the past thirty years were : B. 

 hirtaria, April loth, igog; April 8th, i8g6 ; April 5th, i8g2 ; 

 and April 3rd, 1880. E. versicolor, April gth, igog ; April g, 

 i8g2 ; March 22nd, i8go ; March 30th, i88g ; April 3rd, 

 1886 ; April igth, 18S5. A reference to the weather reports 

 of the four weeks ending respectively Februar\^ 12th to 

 March 5th of the present year showed that the maximum 

 shade temperatures week by week ranged between 54° and 

 42° F. ; 56° and 46° ; 5 1° and 48° ; 57° and 45° ; and the minima 

 between 50° and 30°; 45° and 33°; 44° and 36^; and 41° 

 and 33°; and the rainfalls were 0*40, o'65, 1*23, and 0T5 in. 

 But perhaps the most important factor was the unusual 

 amount of sunshine, the total in the first week under notice 

 being nine hours, or two hours in excess of the avera;;e ; in 

 the second 20'i hours, or about two and a half times as 

 much as the average; in the third week 16 8 hours, or seven 

 hours above the average ; and in the week ending March 5th, 

 38*4 hours, or practically three times the amount of the 

 average. No doiibt the combination of the moisture caused 

 by the rainfall and the excessive amount of sunshine was, he 

 considered, the immediate cause of these early emergences. 



Mr. L. W. Newman exhibited a very interesting series of 

 Anthrocera hippocrepidis taken in one small field near Bristol 

 by Mr. Smallcombe and his son, June 2nd to 4th, igo8, 

 including the rare black var. clirysantheuii, a yellow variety, 

 a very fine pink form, and a red form with yellowish-pink 

 spots ; and from the same field a confluent form of .4. lonicercB, 

 in which the outer and central spots were blotched together, 

 but not united to the basal spots. He also showed a pair of 

 A. indiloti from the New Forest with confluent spots. With 

 regard to the three larvae of A braxas grossidariata, which 

 pupated as a second brood in October and November, igo8, 

 he wished to report that the pupte, which had been kept 

 out of doors all the winter, were still alive. He believed that 

 this was the first record of this species passing the winter as 

 a pupa. 



The remainder of the evening was devoted to the exhibi- 

 tion of lantern-slides by Messrs. Tonge, West (Ashtead), 

 Lucas, Dennis, and Edwards. 



Mr. Tonge exhibited slides illustrative of further examples 

 of the resting attitudes of insects. 



^Ir. W^est exhibited numerous slides of crvstals obtained 

 from solutions. 



Mr. Lucas exhibited slides of rare plants from the New 

 Forest, and of details of insect structure. 



