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superficial resemblance to Colcopliora alcyonipennella, but at 

 once distinguishable by the quite different shape of the hind 

 wings. 



Messrs. Harrison and Main exhibited long series of early 

 spring Geometers, taken this season in Delamere Forest 

 and in Epping Forest, viz. Hybcrnia marginaria {progem- 

 iiiaria), H. rtipricapraria, H. Icucophaaria, Anisopteryx cbscu- 

 laria, and Phigalia pcdaria {pilosavia), together with Nyssia 

 hispidaria, captured in Delamere Forest, where, it was believed, 

 it had not hitherto been taken. Mr. Sich remarked that 

 as a rule the hind wings of H. marginaria had one well- 

 defined line, but frequently there were two, and in some 

 instances three lines, while he had seen an example in which 

 the lines were four in number. 



Mr. West (of Streatham) exhibited pieces of amber having 

 examples of Diptera and Homoptera enclosed in them. 



Mr. Robert Adkin exhibited specimens of Achcrontia 

 atropos, bred from pupae taken in Huntingdonshire in the 

 autumn of last year, and communicated the following note : 



" On December 12th last I received fourteen apparently 

 healthy pupae from a correspondent at Ramsey, who at that 

 time had upwards of two hundred of them that had been 

 collected from the potato-fields in the district some two or 

 three months earlier. I was confidently assured by those 

 who had experience with the species that I should do no good 

 with them, as it was too late to commence forcing them, and 

 that if not forced they would all die during the winter. 

 This, I am bound to admit, was quite in accordance with 

 my own views. It is possible, under specially favourable 

 climatic conditions, that some of the autumn pupae may 

 withstand the effects of a British winter and produce imagines 

 in the spring if left undisturbed ; but after being dug up, and 

 thus deprived of their natural protection, the chances of 

 success are undoubtedly very greatly diminished. Presum- 

 ably atropos is, with us, on the verge of the district in which 

 it can exist under natural conditions, and is therefore more 

 likely to complete its metamorphoses successfully when 

 placed under artificial conditions more nearly resembling the 

 warmer climates where it breeds freely, such as ' forcing.' I 

 accordingly determined to try to assist my pupae by putting 

 them, on arrival, in an earthen pan on about a couple of 

 inches of damp moss, and covering them with a like thick- 

 ness of the same material, covering the whole with a bell- 

 glass, the joint between the glass and the pan being made 

 with a strip of cotton wool, and keeping them in a warm 



