59 



MARCH loth, 1904. 



The President in the Chair. 



Mr. Colthrup exhibited a number of eggs of the Lesser 

 Tern, showing considerable variations in the markings. 



Mr. Tonge exhibited specimens of the following species of 

 butterflies he had just received from Siam : Anosia plexippus 

 and the form archippns, Jtinonia atlites and Aphnciiis hinia- 

 layaniis. He also exhibited photographs of female Lycana 

 tolas, bred by Dr. T. A. Chapman, natural size, showing 

 resting pose ; ovum of Thera jnnipcrata, in sitil on a juniper- 

 leaf, magnified 20 diameters, kindly lent by Mr. H. Main; 

 and ova of Hyhernia rupicapraria, magnified 20 diameters. 



Mr. Manger exhibited the remarkable seed vessels of 

 Martynia prohoscidca, a native of Mexico, which terminate in 

 two long curved beaks or hooks. The genus contains about 

 ten species of herbaceous plants. 



Mr. H. Moore exhibited a living specimen of the locust 

 Acridinm agyptium (Linn), and contributed the following 

 note : " This specimen was brought to me by a flower- 

 hawker, who found it in a basket of Mimosa, on February 

 2gth last. Although I have tried it with various sorts of 

 green-stuff, it appears to have eaten little or nothing. It has 

 been kept on the kitchen mantelpiece, and becomes lively 

 towards evening. I have not heard it myself, but those 

 about the house say it has been chirruping like a little bird. 

 Singularly enough, Fischer, in a note on this species, says 

 that ' it has not only a song deceptively like that of a bird, 

 but also a mimicry of habits, for if anyone approaches the 

 perch on which it is sitting it at once flies off to another at a 

 short distance.^ The species is solitary in its habits, but is 

 now more or less familiar to Londoners, as quite a number 

 during recent years have been introduced in crates of vege- 

 tables — chiefly, I believe, from N. Italy." 



Mr. Robert Adkin exhibited (i) a male variety of Btipalus 

 piniaria, in which the usual dark markings were represented 

 by two small ill-defined dark spots on the costa of each fore- 

 wing and dark spots on the fringes, the whole of the remainder 

 of the wings being of a pale brownish yellow, with the veins 

 darker brown. The specimen was taken at West Wickham 

 Wood in June, 1888. 



(2) Also an example of Calliuwrpha douiinula, in which the 

 usual red colour of the hind wings was replaced by yellow. 

 It was taken at Dover in July, 1897. 



