70 



O. dispar^ and said how curious it was that so careful an 

 observer as Curtis should state that this down was placed 

 over the eggs by the male ; of course it was no such thing. 

 Mr. Tutt said that he believed that it was not generally 

 known that Wilkes, in his book dated about 1743, stated this 

 species was introduced from Germany some years previously. 

 Yet in his description of the figure he calls it British. Mr. 

 Barrett could not believe it to have been introduced. Curtis 

 nearly 100 years later had found it in plenty in Whittlesea 

 and Horning Fens. It was a most prolific species on the 

 Continent, being in some places a plague and a nuisance from 

 the destruction caused by the larvae, and by no means con- 

 fined to fen land districts, thereby being very comparable in 

 its history to Papilio machaon, L. On numerous occasions he 

 had liberated numbers of this species in the fens, and yet it 

 invariably died out. Either it was destroyed by the agency 

 of birds or it was not constitutionally fitted for the conditions 

 under which it found itself. Of course it may possibly exist 

 in some unexplored locality of this country, but he did not 

 consider it probable. No doubt here we were just on the 

 extreme western outskirts of its distribution. He thought 

 that the Continental form exhibited was like the old fen form 

 both in size and appearance. Mr. Fenn, however, stated that 

 they were very distinct in appearance. As regards size, Mr. 

 Tutt said that by careful selection from the small interbred 

 modern British form, Mr. Nicholson had obtained a series of 

 specimens fully equal in size to the one exhibited. 



Mr. McArthur exhibited the following insects from North 

 Devon : — Toxocampa craccce, Fb., Noctiia glareosa, Esp., some 

 of the forms being beautifully red ; Acrouycta rinnicis, L., 

 very dark varieties ; and Agrotis agathina, Dup., including 

 some very red suffused forms. 



Mr. Winkley exhibited a specimen of Helix poinatia, L., 

 which had formed its temporary winter epiphragm, and also a 

 detached epiphragm which had been prematurely cast by 

 a specimen now forming a second epiphragm. Mr. Step 

 said that this epiphragm was of the same nature as an oper- 

 culum, but the latter was a permanent portion of the shell. 



Mr. C. A. Briggs exhibited two specimens of Pliisia iii, 

 Hb., said to have been taken in England. 



Mr. Tutt exhibited a specimen of EupitJiecia subnotata, Hb., 

 with unusually narrow wings : a specimen of Agrotis ripce, 

 Hb., from St. Anne's-on-Sea, being the first that had been 

 taken in that locality ; and two specimens of Eupitliecia 

 subfulvata, Haw., var. oxydata, Tr. {cognata^ St.). 



