118 



wing was yellow instead of red, and that the narrow costal 

 streak of the same wing, although red at the base, assumed 

 the yellow coloration for a considerable portion of its length, 

 the red gradually giving way to the yellow ; he regarded this 

 specimen as of some interest, being another example of 

 the change of colour from red to yellow in the Sesiidae, and 

 he believed in a species where the change had not been 

 previously noticed. He also exhibited a series of Spilosoma 

 lubricipeda, Esp., the descendants of Barnsley ancestors, and 

 he believed the same stock from which the extreme radiated 

 forms reared in some numbers of late had sprung, but in the 

 most strongly marked specimens of the series now shown the 

 tendency in that direction was not great. 



The remainder of the evening was devoted to a conversa- 

 tion on the relative abundance or scarcity of Lepidoptera 

 since tlie excessively hot weather of the past spring, in which 

 Messrs. Weir, Oldham, Hall, Winkley, Frohawk, Adkin, 

 Waller, and others took part, the consensus of opinion being 

 that with one notable Q.yiCt.^Won,r\2s^^y, Polyoniniatus phl(gas, 

 L., which had been more or less abundant throughout the 

 time from April last, Lepidoptera generally had been below 

 the average in point of numbers. 



AUGUST zi^h, 1893. 

 E. Step, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. Dennis exhibited an example of the second brood of 

 Argynnis selene, Schiff., captured on the 15th August at the 

 Devil's Punch Bowl, Haslemere ; it was very much below 

 the usual size. 



Mr. Turner showed specimens of the land molluscs. Helix 

 caperata and Bulhnus acutus, from Penzance. Mr. Step 

 remarked that this last species is common on the coast in the 

 western parts of England, where H. caperata is even more 

 common, though not so strictly a coast species. 



Mr. Carpenter exhibited Syrichthus alveolus, Hb., var. taras, 

 Meig., captured in Abbott's Wood, May, 1893, ^ series of 

 Chariclea timbra, Hufn. [margmata, Fb.), bred from Essex, 

 July, 1893, and a series of Tceniocampa opinia, Hb., bred from 

 Lancashire, April, 1893, one female being very dark. As an 

 instance of the effect on Lepidoptera of the hot weather, Mr. 

 Carpenter mentioned that of a batch of young larvae of 

 Argynnis eiiphrosyjie, L., which were dormant on the 17th 

 June, several had again commenced feeding at the end of 

 that month, and were now in the pupal state. 



