86 



malvce, variety taras, taken at Milton Hide, near Hailsham, 

 Sussex, on June 2nd. Also a cocoon of Hylophila bicolorana 

 {quercana), and called attention to the special construction 

 which gave it great power of resistance to external pressure. 

 He compared it to a boat turned upside-down, thus having 

 the keel uppermost, and with the bilge-pieces continued 

 along and joining the keel. The usual position selected for 

 preparation appeared to be the back of an oak leaf, the 

 head of the cocoon, which is its strongest part, pointing 

 towards the tip of the leaf. He suggested that possibly 

 this special form of cocoon was a protection to the enclosed 

 pupa from damage, by the leaf to which it was attached 

 being blown by the wind against other leaves or branches of 

 the tree. 



Mr. Adkin further mentioned that whilst walking along a 

 road between Amersham Common and Chalfont Road Rail- 

 way Station on the evening of 15th June, at about 8 o'clock, 

 he observed a Hepialus, probably H. lupulimts, wallowing in 

 the dust of the road, just as sparrows sometimes do before 

 rain. There had been some twenty days absolute drought 

 at the time, and the evening was very warm. He at first 

 thought that the insect was in some way damaged and there- 

 fore unable to fly, but on his attempting to box it it flew away 

 with the greatest of ease. He did not think it was engaged 

 in egg laying, as it would hardly select a dusty road for such 

 a purpose, seeing that the young larvae on hatching would be 

 at a considerable distance from any possible food supply, and 

 therefore would undoubtedly perish even if the egg avoided 

 destruction ; and he was quite at a loss to give a solution 

 of the phenomenon, unless the same causes, whatever they 

 might be, which operated in the case of the sparrows also 

 actuated the moth. 



Dr. Chapman exhibited a few Fiunea intermediella, bred 

 from cases taken at Norwood, of a deep brown black colour, 

 so that they might be described as brown or black according 

 to the fancy of the describer, brown being more likely to be 

 selected if the specimen was a little worn. Also a female pupa 

 of a large Psyche from Chili, exhibiting new points in the 

 structure of Psychid pupae, the posterior dorsal hooks on 

 intersegmental membrane being especially well developed in 

 this specimen. He also exhibited cases and male specimens 

 of Fumea crassiorella, pointing out the differences from F. 

 intermediella. 



Mr. Tutt commented on the difficulties which a student of 

 this group found, in that the species were so little known, 



