CUBRENT NOTES. 355 



Another meeting of the members of the Entomological Club and 

 their friends was held at 4, Lingard's Road, Lewisham, S.E. on 

 November 27th, Mr. R. Adkin being the host. The gentlemen present 

 included Messrs. Verrall, Smith, McLachlau, C. G. Barrett, H. Rowland- 

 Brown, S. Edwards, A. H. Jones, J. Jager, W. J. Lucas, H. J. Turner 

 and J. W. Tutt. Tea was provided at 6.30 p.m. by Mrs. and Miss Adkin, 

 after which a most enjoyable evening was spent, supper being served 

 at 8 o'clock. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, held on 

 November 7th, Mr. George S. Saunders exhibited specimens, from 

 Devonshire, of Pieris rapae and Plusia (jcunma caught by the proboscis 

 in flowers of Araujia albens, Don., a climbing plant of the natural 

 order Asclepiadaceae ; and explained the nature of the mechanism by 

 means of which the insects were entrapped by the flowers. Mr. 

 Gahan remarked in reference to the capture of insects by Araujia 

 albens, that the statement met with in some books to the effect that 

 insects were only captured by it in countries where the plant was 

 introduced and not in its native country, was wrong. The specimens 

 exhibited by Mr, Janson at a meeting of the Society last year, came 

 from Buenos Ayres, one of its native places. The subject had recently 

 been discussed in France by MM. Marchand and Bon jour, whose 

 account appeared in the "Bulletin de la Soc. des Sciences Nat. de 

 rOuest de la France," for 1899. These authors concluded that insects 

 were captured only by immature flowers, the anther- wings, in the 

 cleft between which the proboscis of the insect is caught, being at that 

 time stifl' and resistant ; but when the flowers are ripe the anther- 

 wings become less rigid and do not offer sufficient resistance to the 

 withdrawal of the proboscis, which carries with it the pollinia ready 

 to be transferred to the stigma of the next flower which the insect 

 visits. 



At the same meeting the Rev. F. D. Morice mentioned as a fact of 

 some interest, that in a nest of Formica sangninea at Weybridge, in 

 which he found males and workers of that species, he found also males 

 and females as well as workers of the slave-ant, Formica fitsca, an 

 experience somewhat different from that of Huber and Darwin, who 

 stated that workers only, and never males nor fertile females of the 

 slave species, were found in the nests of F. mmininea. 



The President of the Entomological Society of London at the 

 meeting on November 21st suggested from the chair that Fellows 

 living in or out of London should, by letter, communicate to the 

 Secretaries the names of any Fellows that they considered should have 

 a seat on the Council. He further stated that he would like to see the 

 election of Council and Officers arranged so that the whole body of 

 Fellows should take a more direct part in the election. The President 

 further hinted that representative members residing out-of-town would 

 be especially welcomed. To do this the number of Fellows serving on 

 the Council should clearly be increased. There are at present only 15 — 

 of whom 5 are really fixtures, and 5 of the others have to retire each year. 

 The specialisation of work makes it very necessary that the Council 

 should be as representative as possible, but, at the same time, as the 

 work of the lepidopterists is, at present, much more specialised than that 

 of the students of any other order, and the Fellows who are lepidopterists 

 outnumber the Fellows studying all other orders by about 5:1, some 



