109 



leaves were accoinpanied by many Syrphi; but tbese had not done the niiscliief, for, 

 as was well known, they fed upon Aphides, which no doubt were the real depredators. 

 Although tiie tubers would doubtless perish in consequence of the loss of the leaves, 

 yet they were not affected by gangrene, and so there was no analogy with the destruc- 

 tion of the tubers of the potato, altribuled by Mr. Sniee to the attacks upon the leaves 

 by the Aphis vastator. 



Mr. Lubbock mentioned a similar destruction of turnip crop near Farnborough ; 

 and the President said he had heard of another instance near Cranford: he was also 

 sorry to add that Athalia Spinarum or "the black nigger" of the turnip was very 

 abundant this year in several districts. 



Mr. Westwood also staled that there had been a vast amount of injury caused 

 this year by the larvae of saw-flies to pear, cherry, gooseberry and other fruit-trees, 

 amounting in some instances to a total destruction : he thought it might be a 

 very useful subject of inquiry, if the prodigious multiplication of these insects 

 was due to any peculiarity of the season, especially as it appeared that, under 

 some such influence, certain flowers had failed, and others had flourished this year 

 better than usual. 



Indian Lepidoptera. 



Mr. Stainton read the following extract from a letter addressed lo him from 

 Calcutta by W. S. Atkinson, Esq. : — 



"What mistakes writers at home make about exotic species! In Swainson's 

 'Zoological Illustrations,' second series, vol. iii. pi. 101, you will find the pupa of 

 Papilio Polydorus suspended from the tail: this he should have known must be 

 a mistake; I have had several, and of course, like the rest of the Papilios, its head 

 is uppermost, supported by the silken girth. There is a strange confusion about 

 P. Nomius, Boisd. (P. Nianius, Swains.) : Swainson has a very good figure of this 

 well-marked species (which I take here) : he says, ' It is a native of Southern Brazil, 

 and of such rarity that in two years we never met with more than one specimen ; ' 

 and Boisduval, vol. i. p. 252, says, ' J'ai cru jusque'a ces derniers temps que les 

 individus que je poissede venaient du Bengal, quoique Godart indique cette espece 

 comme d'Amerique; mais il me parait demontre aujourdhui que j'avais cominis ane 

 erreur a habitat, puisque M. Swainson dit I'avoir prise lui-meme dans le Nord du 

 Bresil : ' Swainson must surely be mistaken ; for it is hardly likely that this insect is 

 an inhabitant of both the old and new continents. Again, Boisduval, on the 

 authority of Westermann, unites P. Pammon and P. Polytes as male and female: 

 this is certainly not the case. P. Pammon is one of the commonest butterflies here, 

 and I have had several females of the species; some of these, but not all, have red 

 lunules below the central white of the posterior wings, in that respect resembling 

 P. Polytes, but they are never without the band of white blotches on the anterior 

 wings. Blyth, the Curator of the Asiatic Society's Museum here, entirely agrees 

 with me in this ; but he assures me that he has seen these two and P. Polydorus 

 in copulA with one another, but that he has tried in vain to rear a brood from 

 them." 



Mr. Westwood remarked that General Hearsey had brought from India Papilio 

 Pammon and P. Polytes, which he had found united. 



