104 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited specimens of the Saturn ia reared at Malta from ex- 

 amples recently introduced from India as S. Cynthia ; and he also exhibited specimens 

 of the true Saturnia Cynthia received from Major Jenkins, in India, with a ticket at- 

 tached stating that this was the species whose caterpillars produced the " Eria " silk. 

 The difference between these specimens and those from Malta was so trifling that he 

 thought Dr. Boisduval had scarcely sufficient grounds for making the Indio-Maltese 

 species distinct from S. Cynthia, as he had recently done in the J'rench ' Annales,' 

 under the name of S. Eicini ; and argued from the known modifications which 

 occur in the races of the common silk moth, as well as in the Saturnia Paphia (which 

 produces the Tusset Silk of India), as described by Heifer, and in fact from the 

 analogy of domesticated animals in general, that if the progeny of a single pair 

 of S. Cynthia were distributed over a wide geographical range, in three or four 

 generations, quite as much difference would be observed among the specimens as 

 between these so-called distinct species. 



Mr. Stevens exhibited a splendid butterfly, a new species of Agrias recently sent 

 from Villa Nova by Mr. Bates. 



Mr. Foxcroft sent for exhibition some Coleoptera and Lepidoptera recently taken 

 in Perthshire. Among the latter were two Polia occulta, apparently diff"ering from 

 the general type of that species only in the darkness of their colour, but their larvae 

 were said to be totally unlike. This statement was corroborated by a note from Mr. 

 Logan, of Edinburgh, read lo the Meeting. 



Abundance of Noctuidce. 



Mr. Douglas remarked that the number of Noctiiidae this season appeared to he un- 

 usually large near London, and he should like to know if this abundance was general. 



Mr. Stevens said that on the previous night, at Mickleham, he saw 800 or 900 

 Noctuidae attracted to sugar. 



Mr. Westwood said other sweets than sugar were exceedingly attractive to moths: 

 in his garden Noctuidae abounded about a bed of beans which were infested with 

 Aphides, whose excrement, as was well known, formed a sweet deposit; and they also 

 swarmed around some gooseberry bushes, whose fruit, in consequence of the wet 

 weather, had burst. 



The President said that in a large conservatory near Alton he had lately seen large 

 quantities of Noctuidae, which, attracted by the scent of the flowers, had entered by the 

 open door and could not find their way out. He added, that Captain Chawner had 

 told him that occasionally, at the lighthouse at Lowestoft, the moths abounded so 

 much at night that the keeper had to sweep the lantern in order to clear them away. 



The Society's ' Transactions i' 

 Part 5, Vol. iii., n. s. of the ' Transactions ' was on the table. 



The following was read at the April meeting : — 



Description of a Netv Species of Ornilhoptera. 

 " Ornithopteiu Brookiana. Wallace. 

 " Expansion 6J- inches. Wings very much elongated ; black, with a horizontal 

 band of brilliant silky green. On the upper side this band is formed of seven spots 



