﻿SOCIETIES; 235 



section of my article. As it is, however, we seem to be working on by no 

 means the same lines. Of M. Berge's work, I am at present entirely 

 ignorant. With regard now to the questio vexata of the cyanide effect. As 

 Mr. Cockerell will have seen by last month's contribution, my experiments 

 have all been made with solution; and a solution of potassic cyanide ought, 

 of course, to be far more efficacious than a cyanide-bottle. However, acting 

 on Mr. Cockerell's hint, I have made a set of experiments in a damp and 

 heated cyanide-bottle. The details will be best reserved until, in my article, 

 I come to speak of the Colias colours. At present it is sufficient to say that 

 I have got no red, so far. Mr. Cockerell's little theory of the impurities 

 does not, I am afraid, help matters much. Such substances as carbonate, 

 sulphate, or chloride of potash, &c, would, even in concentrated solution, 

 have probably no effect at all on insect colours ; how they could act when 

 in a solid mixture, either cold or warm, I am at a loss to understand ; and 

 this remark applies with still more force to silica. As to potassio ferro- 

 cyanide, I may refer Mr. Cockerell to my last month's contribution ; if it 

 had any effect at all in solution, it would turn Colias white ; mixed with 

 solid cyanide, it would be as harmless as the carbonate, &c. As to 

 ammoniacal compounds, similar remarks would hold good ; but ammonia 

 itself in solution has a very powerful effect on Colias yellow, but it turns it 

 pure white (see next month). The mere vapour of strong ammonia is very 

 slow to act, but eventually a similar effect is produced. So far, therefore, 

 we seem no nearer getting concordant results as to this reddening of Colias. 

 Finally, with regard to the white of Lycsenidae, I think Mr. Cockerell will 

 find that dealt with in this month's section of my article (see p. 319). — 

 F. H. Perry Coste ; Ravenshoe, Burnt Ash Hill, June 8, 1890. 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — June Ath, 1890. — The Right 

 Hon. Lord Walsingham, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the chair. Mr. George 

 William Carter, M.A., F.L.S., of Lime Grove, Knottingley, Yorkshire ; 

 and Mr. 11. Newstead, of The Museum, Chester, were elected Fellows ; and 

 Mr. Oliver Goldthwait and Mr. John W. Downing were admitted into the 

 Society. The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. Edwards, Norwich, 

 two specimens of Ilybius subceneus, Er., and a single specimen of Bidessus 

 unistriatus, Schr. Mr. Champion alluded to the fact that the only recorded 

 British specimens of the first-mentioned beetle had been taken many years 

 ago at Peckham. The species is very closely allied to I. fenestratus, F., 

 but the posterior tarsi of the male have the joints externally margined at 

 their lower edge, whereas in the male of the last-mentioned species they are 

 not margined ; this character was very plain in the male specimen sent by 

 Mr. Edwards. Lord Walsingham, in alluding to the exhibit, referred to 

 the list of Norfolk Coleoptera compiled some years ago by Mr. Crotch, 

 which appears to have been lost sight of. Mr. Verrall exhibited a specimen 

 of a fly in amber, belonging to a genus allied to the genus Psychoda. Mr. 

 M'Lachlan alluded to the damage done by insects to orange-trees in Malta, 

 and stated that the Rev. G. Henslow had lately been studying the question ; 

 one: of the chief depredators was the widely-spread " fly," Ceratitis citriperda, 

 well known as devastating the orange. He found, however, that another 

 and more scriuus enemy was the larva of a large Longicorn beetle (Cerambyx 



