﻿236 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



miles, Bou.), which bores iuto the lower part of the stem and down into the 

 roots, making large galleries ; in all probability the larva, or that of an 

 allied species, is the true Cossus of the ancients. Lord Walsingham stated 

 that a species of Prays, allied to P. oleellus and our common P. curtisellus, 

 was known to feed in the buds of the orange and lemon in Southern Europe. 

 Mr. Pascoe, Mr. Champion, and others took part in the discussion which 

 followed. The Secretary, on behalf of Miss Carr, exhibited a portfolio of 

 drawings of Indian Lepidoptera and their food-plants. The following 

 papers were communicated, and were read by the Secretary : — " Notes 

 on the species of the families Lycida? and Lampyridse contained in the 

 Imperial Museum of Calcutta, with descriptions of new species, and a list 

 of the species at present described from India," by the Eev. H. S. Gorham ; 

 and " A Catalogue of the Rhopalocerous Lepidoptera collected in the Shan 

 States, with notes on the country and climate," by Mr. N. Manders, 

 Surgeon, Medical Staff. The latter paper contained a very interesting 

 description of the chief physical features of the Shan States and 

 neighbouring parts of Burmah. — H. Goss & W. W. Fowleb, Hon. Sees. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society. 

 —May %%nd, 1890. — J. T. Carrington, F.L.S., President, in the chair. 

 Mr. S. Edwards exhibited Lepidoptera from China and India, including 

 examples of Papilio nigarus; also Coleoptera, belonging to the family 

 Sagra, from Africa. Mr. Hawes, ova of Gonopteryx rhamni, L., and 

 made some interesting remarks on the way the eggs were deposited. Mr. 

 Frohawk also showed a microscopical drawing of the ovum of the same 

 species, and a coloured drawing of a small plant of buckthorn about three 

 inches in size, upon which he had found seven ova. Mr. Nussey exhibited 

 living larva? of Geometra papilionaria, L. Mr. C. Fenn, a very long series 

 of Saturnia pavonia, L., reared from eggs obtained by a female captured 

 at Bournemouth : the specimens were exceptionally large, and the males 

 very brilliantly coloured. He also showed long series of both sexes of 

 Spilosoma mendica, Clerck., which he stated were reared by him from ova 

 obtained from a female taken at Eltham, the larva? being fed on the common 

 broad-leaved plantain ; forty-three imagines were bred — twenty-one male 

 and twenty-two female. The females varied little from the ordinary type, 

 with one exception, which was curiously blotched with dark grey on the 

 left superior wing ; the males varied from the usual English type up to a 

 dull pale yellowish grey, and quite 50 per cent, diverged more or less from 

 the usual form. The pupa? had been exposed to the weather in a very cold 

 and damp spot, which he thought rather bore out Mr. Tutt's theory that 

 moisture is the cause of melanism or colour variation. Mr. R. Adkin 

 remarked that these specimens showed more variation than was usually 

 found in specimens of this species from English localities, and asked 

 whether anything was known of the male parent, and whether the female 

 differed from the type. In answer, Mr. Fenn said he knew nothing of the 

 male, and there was nothing special about the markings of the female 

 parent. Mr. Tutt pointed out that the variation in the male was somewhat 

 similar to the Irish form known as var. rustica. Some observations were 

 made by Messrs. South, Tutt, Carrington, Adkin, and Fenn, on pupa? of 

 Lepidoptera laying over for two or more years. 



June l%th, 1890. — The President in the chair. Messrs. G. B. Rye, of 

 Putney; H. McArthur, of Brompton; and A. Ward, of Brighton, were 

 elected members. Mr. Wellman exhibited Acronycta strigosa, bred from 



