29 



about the disease, which attacked the workers in the first instance, 

 causing- a binding effect upon their internal organs, with stoppage 

 and the resultant paralysis, and death. The queen bee, if herself 

 not attacked, would die from starvation. The disease was most 

 contagious, and it was necessary to burn all hives and material 

 likely to be infected. When once attacked there was no hope of 

 saving a single hive. 



Mrs. Hemming said that her bees at Horley, Surrey, had 

 succumbed, and that a professional beekeeper on the confines of 

 Tilgate Forest had not been able to save a single hive out of a 

 large number. It had been suggested that the disease was the out- 

 coine of the recently introduced custom of spraying charlock with a 

 poisonous compound to counteract the attacks of vermin. 



Mr. Step said that the disease had been known as the " Isle of 

 Wight disease," but seemed now to be spreading with much vigour. 



Mr. A. W. Buckstone exhibited examples of a bred series of 

 Apncheima (A^/ss/a) hispiilaria from Wimbledon parents. The males 

 were paler than the male parent, while the females were variable. 

 The larvfe were fed on elm and hawthorn. All the larva^ (ninety-five) 

 pupated. Eighty-eight moths emerged; the majority being females. 

 The remaining seven pupfe were found to contain dead moths — six 

 females and one male. The soil in which the larvfe pupated 

 consisted of pine mould 50%, silver sand 25%, Japanese fibre 25%. 

 Depth, lOi^ inches. The vessel used was an eleven-inch flower pot. 

 About four inches of soil at the bottom was damp, the remainder 

 dry. A double layer of bath towelling was kept over the mouth of 

 the pot, and was always kept moist, and the pot remained outdoors 

 from mid- October. The second week in January the pup^ were 

 removed and placed between layers of Japanese fibre, the mouth of 

 the pot being covered with tift'any. The moths commenced to 

 emerge the third week in January. He also exhibited examples of 

 dwarfed specimens of Hybemia defoliaria, of which there was a 

 larger percentage than usual during the period October- December, 

 1910, in the Wimbledon and Richmond districts. 



Mr. Blenkarn read the following short notes on various 

 species : — 



Several Chedas rufata {obliqnaria) which emerged in a pot, the 

 mouth of which was covered with damp bath towelling, failed to 

 develop after ten hours, but on being placed in an ordinary breeding 

 cage the wings developed rapidly, and were fit for flight in half-an- 

 hour. The same thing occurred with specimens of C. spartiata. 



Triphicna proniiba larvae had pupated without feeding after 



