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JULY 26tk, 1888. 

 J. T. Carrington, Esq., F.L.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. T. S. Hillman was elected a member. 



Mr. J. T. Carrington exhibited a specimen of Sirex gigas, 

 Fab. Mr. West (Greenwich) stated he had several times 

 taken the species drying its wings on willow trees near 

 London. 



Mr. W. H. Tugwell exhibited Eiipithecia extensaria, Frr., 

 also very dark specimens oi Melanippe fltictiiata, L., from 

 Pitcaple, known as the var. neapolisata. Mill, together with 

 examples of the Southern form of the species. 



Mr. Robson, a variety of Argynnis eupJwosyne, L., taken by 

 Mr. Waller at St. Mary's Cray, Kent. Plate i, fig. 3. 



Mr. Frohawk exhibited the white-banded variety of Sesia 

 ciilicifonnis, L., referred to in Mr. Cockerell's note read at the 

 mteting on 14th June. 



The Secretary read the following further communication 

 on the subject from Mr. Cockerell : — 



"White pigment in the Sesiidse. — The species of the genus 

 Sesia have black bodies with coloured bands, and these 

 bands are usually red or yellow, the pigments being presuma- 

 bly the same as the red and yellow pigments of the 

 Zygaenidae and Cheloniidae. Sesia culiciforniis, L., is a red- 

 banded species, but has an occasional variety {lutesce^is) , in 

 which the banding is yellow, a fact which agrees well with 

 the view that the red and yellow pigments are forms of one. 

 But this is not all ; Mr. Frohawk in The Field, 1887, p, 828, 

 alludes to a * white-banded variety ' of ^. cidiciforniis which 

 he found at West Wickham. This white banding in Sesia 

 struck me at the time I read of it as very curious, but it is 

 not unique, for the banding in .S. andreniforniis, Lasp., is 

 stated to be 'white or pale yellow,' and that of S. sphegifonnis, 

 Fb., is white. So it really now appears that if there is good 

 reason to believe the pigment in question to be dimorphic, 

 red and yellow, there is equally good reason to suppose it 

 triniorphic, red, yellow and white, unless indeed these white 

 forms (which I have not seen) are due to albinism or absence 

 of pigment. The same variation to white occurs also in 

 Arctia caia, L., for H. Strecker states that this species in 



