SOCIETIES. 249 



a walk through the town and its fertile outskirts on the high ground in the 

 rear, ever and anon picking up a lifeless specimen of Acridium peregrinum 

 by the side of the road, or in the hedgerow, relics of the recent plague of 

 those insects, which had wrought such enormous damage to the early crops, 

 and had been gradually disappearing since Tuesday, May 26th, about eight 

 days previous. I likewise managed to secure two living specimens, a male 

 and female, in a vineyard ; the body of a freshly caught male is of a 

 beautiful tint, a bright daffodil yellow. Many of the dead ones that lay 

 strewn about were in a very dry and dilapidated state, the head being 

 missing, or the wings and legs loose. According to a Gibraltar newspaper, 

 a cloud of these insects had settled on a steamer during its voyage from 

 Marseilles to Tangier, filling the cabins and saloon, and covering the deck 

 to a depth of four inches, and it took the sailors some hours to clear them 

 away. On inquiring of Mohammed, the Moorish guide, attached to the 

 Hotel Continental, who accompanied another English gentleman and 

 myself in our early walk, as to whether a change of weather had contributed 

 to their destruction, " God killed them," he emphatically replied. According 

 to the statement of some, the millions of locusts in Morocco this season 

 have exceeded in number even those that have devastated Algiers. Such 

 was my first experience of the locust of the plague of Egypt. — F. A. 

 Walkee ; Dun Mallard, Cricklewood, N.W. 



Errata.— Page 213, line 2, for " P. stea" read "P.itea"; line 10 

 from bottom, for " relects " read " relics." 



SOCIETIES. 



Entomological Society of London. — September ^nd, 1891. — Mr. 

 Frederick DuCane Godmau, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the chair. Mr. 

 W. H. Blaber, of Groombridge, Sussex ; Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, F.Z.S., 

 of Kingston, Jamaica; Mr. K. E. F. Hanson, B.A., of Tunbridge Wells, 

 Kent; and Mr. R. C. Wroughton, of Poona, India, were elected Fellows of 

 the Society. Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot exhibited a series of various species 

 of Diptera collected on Ranunculacese, Papaveracese, and Cruciferse. He 

 said that during the past summer he had studied about forty species of 

 plants belonging to the orders named, and that they had all been visited by 

 insects which were probably necessary for nectariferous flowers. The 

 majority of the Diptera caught were not confined to one species or even 

 genus, but in view of the unmodified character of the flower in the orders 

 named this was only to be expected. Mr. Verrall observed that certain 

 insects afi'ected certain plants, but that the Geraniacese were seldom visited. 

 The discussion was continued by Mr. M'Xiachlan, Mr. Kirby, and others. 

 Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited a specimen of the orthopterous insect 

 Hemisaga hastata, de Sauss., which, in the Transvaal, he observed to 

 attack and feed on Danais chrysippus, a butterfly well known from its pro- 

 tective character and distasteful qualities to have a complete immunity 

 from the usual lepidopteral enemies. The Hemisaga lurked amongst the 

 tops of tall flowering grasses, being consequently disguised by its protective 

 resemblance to the same, and seized the Danais as it settled on the bloom. 

 From close watching and observation Mr. Distant could discover no other 

 danger to the life of this well-known and highly protected butterfly. Mr. 



ENTOM. — OCT. 1891. Y 



