280 THE. ENTOMOLOGIST. 



through the pupa-skin only a very few hours before emergence. One of the 

 specimens in which it had become visible during the afternoon, emerged 

 during the course of the evening. The average dates were — ova laid 26th 

 May, hatched 6th June, the first pupating on the 9th July. Mr. Step ex- 

 hibited the following species of galls from Epsom, viz., Andricus fecundatrix, 

 Htg., Neuroterus lenticularis, Olivier, Andricus ostreus, Cynips kollari, 

 Ehodites nervo&us, Curt., R. ros(E, Htg., R. eglanterice, Htg. Mr. Step ex- 

 patiated upon the advantages of studying the Phytophagous Hyraenoptera, 

 and a discussion ensued, in which Messrs. Step, Barrett, Weir, and others 

 took part. 



August lOth. — The President in the chair. Mr. Weir exhibited some 

 cases which had been found under a sycamore by a neighbour of his, Mr. 

 Tolhurst, at Beckenham. He said that attention had been called to these 

 cases by seeing them hopping over a gravel walk, a power which they 

 retained for some days after they were obtained. The cases were circular 

 disks about 13 mm. in diameter and had been made from the upper cuticle 

 of the sycamore leaf, forming one side, and silk the other. Upon 

 examining the leaves of the tree, the round spots from which the cases were 

 partly formed were plainly visible, and also the large blotch from which the 

 larva had eaten the parenchyma. It was at first thought that they might 

 be the cases of a Tischeria, but they had since been identified by 

 Mr. McLachlan as the work of a sawfly, Phyllotoma acerls, a somewhat 

 detailed life-history of which is given by Charles Healy, ' Ent. Mo. Mag.,' 

 iv. pp. 105-107 (1867). The President also exhibited nearly adult larvae 

 of HemerojjJiila ahruptaria, and drew attention to the fact that two pairs of 

 prolegs were, as usual in Geometers, fully developed, and that there were 

 also two other imperfect pairs in front of these. He considered these very 

 imperfect prolegs to be vestigial. Mr. Frohawk exhibited specimens of 

 Macroglossa hombyliformis, together with a species of humble-bee, which it 

 mimics, both captured in company over rhododendrons in the New Forest, 

 21st May last. Mr. Robt. Adkin exhibited a specimen of Sesia asiliformis, 

 Rett, [cynipiformis, Esp.), that he had reared from a pupa received from 

 the neighbourhood of Abbot's Wood, and pointed out that the colour of the 

 band of the left fore 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, as 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 of the spots to become elongated was not great. Mr. Oldham 

 exhibited series of Si^hinx ligusti'i, Apamea ophiogramnia, Calymnia affinis, 

 and other species chiefly taken at Woodford. The remainder of the 

 evening was occupied by a discussion on the relative abundance or scarcity 

 of Lepidoptera since the excessively hot weather of the past spring, in 

 which Messrs. Weir, Oldham, Hall, Winkley, Frohawk, Adkin, Waller, and 

 others took part, the concensus of opinion being, that with one notable ex- 

 ception, — namely, Polyommatus jyJilcsas, which had been more or less abun- 

 dant throughout the time from April last, — Lepidoptera generally had been 

 below the average in point of numbers. — H. Williams, Hon. Secretary. 



