32 



Dunning thought that photography might be found useful in obtaining accurate deli- 

 neations of many Entomological objects. 



Professor Westwood observed that a work had been published at Paris, several 

 years since, by the authorities of the Jardiu des Plantes, in which photography had 

 been tried in different branches of Zoology, but the representations of insects had 

 proved failures, owing to the want of accurate definilion in the extended limbs, 

 antennse, &c., which seemed to render the act useless to Entomology, except in flat 

 surfaces, such as the wings of Neuroptere, &c., of which the veins were capable of 

 being very clearly represented. 



On the Breeding of Varieties in Lepidnpiera. 



Mr. Dunning also read, from the 'Proceedings of the Northern Entomological 

 Society,' a paper by Mr. C. S. Gregson, " On the Breeding of Varieties in Lepi- 

 doptera," in which the author detailed the result of his experiments on various species, 

 with the view of showing that by supplying the larva with a food-plant differing from 

 the known natural food of the species, variation from the usual coloration would be 

 obtained in the imago. 



Dr. Wallace had often noticed that on chalky soils oak-leaves were of a very pale 

 green tint; on limestone soils, as in Wales, foliage generally had a dark leaden hue. 

 On mosses dark tints were prevalent, as also at Killarney and Rannoch. He attri- 

 buted this to the chemical [difference in the soils, aided by solar and atmospheric in- 

 fluence. Brighton insects were notoriously pale, and inclined to fade on the setting- 

 board ; Scottish insects remarkable for their richness of colour ; Welsh insects for 

 their leaden hues. Since the juice of different plants possessed different chemical 

 elements, he attributed to this, as also to the power possessed by the larva of assimi- 

 lating these different elements, much of the variation in depth of colour in the 

 instances cited by Mr. Gregson : he therefore referred the tone of colour in an insect's 

 wing to the chemical elements assimilated through the medium of the plant from the 



soil. 



Professor Westwood trusted that, if Mr. Gregson's article should only be privately 

 circulated, the Enlomological Society would obtain permission to publish it in their 

 'Transactions.' He considered Mr. Gregson's remarks as important, with reference 

 to the question of modification of species dependent on the food of the larva, which 

 he had so often insisted upon, with reference to many so-called species of Micro-Lepi- 

 doptera. The question as to the proper term to be applied to variations in the colour 

 of flowers was at the present moliient under discussion, all variation from the normal 

 colour being considered by some writers as monsters, and in that view Professor 

 Westwood fully conceded, considering that every species possessed a normal condition, 

 which it had retained ever since the period of its creation, and that every modification 

 of size, colour or markings was monstrous. 



Mr. Lubbock would like to see the experiments of Mr. Gregson continued for many 

 successive generations of the insects ; he felt convinced that important and interesting 

 results would be arrived at by so doing, and hoped that Mr. Gregson would persevere 

 in his experiments. 



Bees and the Art of Queen Making. 



Mr. Smith read the following communication: — "At the November Meeting of 

 this Society, Mr. Tegetmeier called the attention of the members to a theory lately 



