122 



Meath, Ireland, and remarked that although many species 

 taken in this district showed a good deal of variation, those 

 now exhibited were typical. 



Mr. South exhibited three examples of Abraxas grossu- 

 lariata bred from larvse fed on a species of Sedum. The 

 majority of the larvae died, a few pupated, and of these seven 

 only were bred. He also showed a suffused variety of Mela- 

 nippe sociata approaching the form taken in the Hebrides, 

 for which the varietal name obscurata has been proposed 

 (" Entom.," xxi, 27). 



Mr. Andrews exhibited a Noctuae from Darenth Wood, 

 which was supposed to be a very extreme form of Caradrina 

 cubicularis. It was very dark, and almost the whole central 

 area of the fore-wings was black. 



Mr. Lucas read a paper entitled " The Dragon-fly Season 

 of 1898." This paper, from which the following notes are 

 extracted, was illustrated by some fifty lantern slides, not 

 the least interesting of which were sixteen photographs of 

 different stages of the emergence of JEschna cyanea taken 

 from nature by Rev. A. East, of Southleigh, Oxon., and 

 kindly placed at the disposal of Mr. Lucas for the evening. 



Owing to the ungenial spring the dragon-fly season of 

 1898 was very late in commencing, and it is probably quite 

 safe to say that the earlier species were nearly or quite a 

 month behind their usual time of appearance. Whereas 

 Enallagma cy&thigerwm, Pytrhosoma nympJmla, Libellula 

 depressa, and Libellula quadriw.aculata appear at the begin- 

 ning of May, or in very early seasons at the end of April, in 

 1898, except for stragglers, they were not well on the wing 

 till early in June. 



Those members of the Society who attended the field 

 meeting at Oxshott on May 21st will recollect how few 

 dragon-flies were taken, scarcely more than might have been 

 counted on one's fingers ; yet by that date several species 

 should have been swarming at the Black Pond and its 

 vicinity. 



Towards the end of June the summer dragon-flies began to 

 put in an appearance at the proper time, unaffected appa- 

 rently by the prolongation of the cold weather, and so the 

 periods of certain species overlapped more than they usually 

 do. The season thenceforward was a most satisfactory 

 one, and owing to the fine autumn was late in closing. The 

 last specimens noticed were of Sympetrum striolatum in 

 Richmond Park, on October 23rd, though in 1897 the same 

 species was observed at the Black Pond on November 



