SOCIETIES. 



21 



October 18th, 1916.— Election of Fellows.— Prof. E, Bugnion, La 

 Luciole, Aix-en-Provence, France, and Rev. Bruce Cornford, 13 

 Havelock Road, Portsmouth, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



Some new and little-known examples of resemblance in butter- 

 flies.— Mr. G. Talbot, on behalf of Mr. J. J. Joicey, exhibited several 

 new Chinese and S. American examples. 



Experiments on Spiders with butterfly food and observations on 



THE attacks of BiRDS ON BuTTERFLIES, IN BRITISH EaST AfRICA, BY THE 



Rev. K. St. Aubyn Rogers. — Prof. Poulton gave an account of some 

 experiments and observations conducted in 1908, 1910, and 1911 at 

 Rabai, about 120 miles N.W. of Mombasa. 



Specialisation in the response of Butterflies to stimuli. — Prof. 

 Poulton drew attention to an observation on Lycaena tlietis {bellarf/ns,) 

 Rott. He found that when a butterfly was carefully approached so 

 that it was evidently unaware of the presence of the observer, it could 

 be gently tapped or stroked with the feathery end of a long grass stem 

 without causing it any alarm. It was evident that such stimuli, which 

 would, of course, continually be caused by the wind under natural 

 conditions, were sharply distinguished from those normally caused 

 by possible enemies. 



A Gynandromorphous Ant. — Mr. Donisthorpe exhibited an ergatan- 

 dromorph of J\hjrmica laevinodis which he had taken in his garden at 

 Putney on October 11th. 



Mermithogynes of Lasius flavus and L. alienus. — Mr. W. C. 

 Crawley exhibited mermithogynes of Lasius flavdts and L. alienus taken 

 at Porlock. 



Winged Females of Forda formicaria and F. viridana. — Mr. 

 Crawley also exhibited the alate 5 ? , hitherto unknown, of the common 

 ant aphids, Forda fonnicaria, Heyden, and F. viridana, Buckton, taken 

 at Porlock with Lasius alieno-niger. 



Japanese Febiale Psychid and case. — Dr. Cockayne exhibited a ? 

 Psychid bred July 1916 from a larva found on a Japanese dwarf cedar 

 at Hammersmith, together with the larval case. 



Melanic and other Aberrations of British Geometers. — Mr. L. 

 W. Newman exhibited true melanic (unicolorous black) specimens of 

 Eupithecia lariciata from Warwickshire; melanic specimens of Boarmia 

 cimsonaria from Kent ; dark type, intermediate and melanic specimens 

 of B. consortaria from Warwickshire ; also on behalf of Mr. G. B. 

 Oliver two curious aberrations of the latter species. 



Pupal cell of Dytiscus marginalis. — Mr. H. Main exhibited a 

 pupal cell in sitii of the beetle Dijtiscus marginalis, together with a 

 spectroscopic photograph of the pupa in its cell, showing how it rested 

 on it its extremities, the rest of the body being unsupported. 



Rare British Coleoptera. — Mr. Bedwell exhibited on behalf of 

 Mr. C. J. C. Pool an exceptionally large 3^ of Emus hirtus taken near 

 Rochester in September, and also a specimen of Megapenthes lugens 

 taken by Mr. D. Cumming, in May 1915, on holly blossom near 

 Lynd hurst. 



Mr. Bedwell also exhibited a living specimen of Elater coccinatus 

 from Waltham Abbey, with examples of E. pomonae and E. sanguino- 

 leutus, and the thorax of each species mounted separately for comparison. 



Papers. — The following papers were read : — 



