ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



JANUARY lyk, 1898. 



Mr. R. Adkin, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Mansbridge exhibited a photograph of an ash tree 

 and an elm tree, taken in winter, when they were without 

 foliage, and remarked upon the very distinctive character of 

 the branching shown by each tree. 



Mr. R. Adkin exhibited trivial varieties of Pararge megcera. 

 In the case of two males the ocellus near the apex of the 

 fore-wing was much reduced in size, and in one of them the 

 usual three ocelli near the margin of the hind wings were 

 represented by one well-developed ocellus only, and in the 

 other example by two indistinct ocelli. A female was asym- 

 metrical, having a fully developed ocellus near the apex of 

 the left wing, while on the right wing it was represented by 

 a minute black speck. He thought these varieties, although 

 but trivial in extent, were interesting as probably belonging 

 to one class of modification. The examples shown were 

 taken in various parts in the southern counties of England. 



Mr. Adkin also exhibited a living example of a land pla- 

 narian, which was identified as Bipalium kewensee, Mos., a 

 species that is believed to have been introduced into this 

 country from the forests of Samoa. The specimen exhibited 

 was one of several that had been found in a hothouse at 

 Bromley, Kent, whither it had no doubt been brought with 

 some tropical plant, possibly a large tree-fern, near which it 

 was found. 



Mr. Pearce, of Hackney, exhibited a number of most 

 remarkable forms of Hemerophila abruptaria. Some of the 

 examples were the progeny through successive broods of 

 several dark female aberrations captured in May, 1895, in 

 Hackney ; others were bred from larvae found in the autumn 

 of 1895, feeding in his garden on lilac ; and some were cap- 

 tured or bred in 1896. One specimen bred in 1897 had a 

 male and a female antenna on the left and right side re- 

 spectively. 



The Secretary read a paper communicated by Professor 



