128 



of this rarity were taken in his garden on the i6thof July 

 last year ; another being bred from a pupa found at the same 

 date. Pipunculiis geniculatus, Mg., a female of this rare fly 

 was taken by Mr. Billups at Oxshot, Surrey, on the iith of 

 the present month ; also several specimens of Oxyphora 

 arnic(2, L., taken at the same locality. A fine series of the 

 rare and exceedingly pretty dipterous Pteropactria afflicta, 

 Meig., and Trypeta florescentia, Meig., were also shown, they 

 having been taken by Mr. Billups at Oxshot in a little 

 cutting, where they absolutely swarmed, on the nth of this 

 month. Mr. Billups also exhibited Voliicella bombylans, L., 

 and its puparium, and Homalomyia fuscula, Flu., with its 

 puparium, obtained from a Bombus nest received from 

 Aberdeenshire. 



Mr, T. R. Billups also exhibited an egg of the Nightjar 

 {Caprimulgus europcsus, L.) from Oxshot, Surrey. 



Mr. Step remarked on the difficulty of finding the Qgg of 



this bird owing to its resemblance to the ground upon which 



it was laid ; the one exhibited by Mr. Billups was much 



more strongly marked than was usual. Mr. R. Adkin said 



he had on several occasions found the eggs at Oxshot after 



flushing the bird, by carefully searching the ground near the 



place where the bird rose, the egg would be seen, and it was 



invariably about a foot from the trunk of a fir tree. He 



confirmed Mr. Step's remarks as to the manner in which the 



egg harmonised with the bare ground on which it was laid, 



the bird making no attempt at the formation of any nest 



whatever. 



AUGUST i-itk, 1891. 



W. H. TUGWELL, Esq., Ph.C, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited cases containing living larvse 

 of Psyche villosella, Och. (the produce of eggs of July in 

 the present year), the cases from which the imagines had 

 emerged, bred from eggs of 1889 ; and the perfect insect ; and 

 contributed the following note : — 



" The males of P. villosella emerge from the cases about 

 the latter end of June or during July, leaving the empty 

 pupa skin projecting from the case about one-third of an 

 inch ; the female in most instances does not leave the case, 

 but clears the emergent end by pressing herself out about a 

 quarter of an inch ; the male appears to be able to fertilize 

 the female by forcing his body into the case, and thus 

 reaching the female. The abdomen is singularly extensile, 

 increasing to more than double its length at emergence. 



