SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27 



and Rannoch. Mr. Tutt read a most interesting 

 paper, entitled ■■ Some Considerations of Natural 

 Genera and Incidental References to the Nature of 

 Species." — April 22nd. Mr R. Adkin, F.E.S., 

 President, in the chair. Mr. Malcolm Burr, 

 Bellagio, East Grinstead, Sussex, was elected a 

 member. Mr. Waters exhibited a number of the 

 "casts" of both owls and rooks. These rejecta- 



were examined, and the former contained 

 bones, starlings' skulls, etc., while the latter con- 

 tained corn-husks and beetles' wings mainly. Mr. 

 Barrett, the only known Scottish specimen of 

 C • is ;-J. V. captured in Dumbartonshire by Mr. 

 Mallock. He also exhibited a variety of Crymodes 

 exults, taken by Mr. Percy Bright in Unst, a form 

 at one time considered a distinct species and termed 

 . together with the same species 

 from Rannock and Iceland. Mr. Auld, a varied 

 series of Cuaillia chamomile from Lewes. Mr. 

 Robt. Adkin, a series of Hybsrnia marginaria 



tmaria), the progeny of a pair received from 

 Mr. Hewett, of York : about sixty per cent, of the 

 males were of the black form and followed the 

 parents, while the whole of the females were dark. 

 He also made remarks upon the scaling and 

 pigmentation. Mr. Mera, a larva of Callimorpha 

 'mrj. which had fed all the winter and was in 

 its last stage. Mr. Perks, a specimen of morel 

 {Morchella esntUnla), which fungus came from an 

 iron-yard in Greenwich. Mr. Step, the following 

 specimens of spider crabs from Portscatho : 

 rostratus, male and female, with a 

 card of dissections to show sexual differences, 

 curved hooked hairs, upper and under sides 

 of the chelae, etc. ; Inachus doryiuhus and /. 

 leptochiws ; Pisa tribulus, with a red sponge covering 

 the whole of the carapace ; and photographs of 

 Maia squinado. The Secretary then read a paper 

 on the above exhibit communicated by Mr. Step, 

 entitled "Some British Spider Crabs." — May 13th. 

 Mr. R South, F.E.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Mr. Stanley Edwards exhibited a small scorpion, 

 which he had captured at Digne, in the South of 

 France, together with a specimen of the 6eld 

 cricket from the same locality. He also exhibited 

 a pupa of Charaxes jasius, and stated that Dr. 

 Chapman had sent him larva: of this species from 

 Cannes, earlier in the year. Mr Tutt made 

 remarks upon the condition of vegetation and 

 insect life as observed by Mr. Edwards and himself 

 during a week's holiday at Easter in the south- 

 cast of France The weather there was superb, 

 but yet the vegetation there was, at 1.900 feet 

 above the sea. but little in advance of that in 

 the south of England. With the development of 

 insect life there was no comparison, for in one day 

 be had seen no less than fifty-two species of 

 lepidoptera. In the corner of one field were to be 

 seen all our three species of the genus MeliUa. 

 flying together Mr Edwards exhibited, on behalf 

 of Mr I-»ml> of Maidstone, specimens of the 



I, Orchis 

 purpurea, Smfrnim and of the whortle- 



\\\ from that district Mr bibited 



a mature and two immature specimens of an Indian 

 tpeci<r 



taken in thi Mr. 



of Apanua ophiogramma 

 in the stem -rais, and 



notes on its ha! ng it . old burr' 



•electing a nth, a M 



Amp,, marla), and 



hile the larva bad been unusually 

 varied serie* of / 



cinttaria, taken this year in the New Forest. Mr. 

 H. Moore, specimens of the rare insect, Pseudopontia 

 paradoxa, with drawings showing its anomalous 

 venation, its bifid scales and the isolated position 

 of each scale on the wing-membrane. He con- 

 tributed notes on the species which he said had 

 come from Mombasa, East Africa, and about the 

 position of which insect there was the widest 

 divergence of opinion ; some authorities placed it 

 with the Rhopalocera, some among the Geometers 

 and some among the Bombyces. Mr. Clark, a 

 series of photographs of sections of the stems of 

 various trees and plants. Mr. Turner, on behalf 

 of Mr. Clarke, of Reading, specimens of Tephrosia 

 crepuscularia, taken in the wood, which Mrs. Bazett 

 had said did not produce the species. Mr. Tutt 

 read a paper, sent by Professor Grote, A.M., 

 entitled " Autumnal Notes from the Butterfly 

 Camp by the Shores of Lake Erie." — Hy.J. 

 Turner, Hon. Report. Sec. 



North London Natural History Society. — 

 February nth, 1S97, ^ r - C. Nicholson, President, 

 in the chair. Exhibits : Mr. Prout, bred specimens of 

 Eupithecia castigata, from Sandown, and E.jasoneata, 

 from North Devon. Mr. Bacot, larvae of Bombyx 

 quercus (received from Mr. Goymour), and of 

 B. spartii and B. quercus from South France 

 (received from Mr. Warburg), on which he read 

 notes. Mr. Battley, thirty-eight species of 

 Pyralides. Mr. Woodward also exhibited. Mr.. 

 Dadd remarked that all the female Arctia plantaginis 

 which he had taken in Germany had red hind- 

 wings instead of the ordinary yellow tint. Mr. L. 

 J. Tremayne opened a discussion on "Over- 

 collecting and its Remedies." This question, he 

 said, had been before the public some time, and 

 though over-collecting might not be responsible for 

 so much injury to species as some supposed, there- 

 was no doubt that it did exist and did a great deal 

 of harm. It was very difficult to know how to stop 

 it, principally on account of the differences of 

 opinion as to the proper remedy. The three main 

 remedies seemed to be boycotting, legislation, and 

 enclosure of the land. Having referred to the 

 appointment of committees on the subject by the 

 Entomological Society of London and our own 

 society, Mr. Tremayne proceeded to deal with 

 these three remedies separately. The first two he 

 thought could only be made useful as auxiliaries, 

 but real good might be done by a judicious enclosure 

 of some of our collecting-grounds, and he suggested 

 the formation of a central committee, elective if 

 possible, with power to grant passes to respectable 

 naturalists on the recommendation of their 

 societies. This, he thought, with the assistance 

 of an Act of Parliament, and the cultivation of a 

 higher spirit in the rising generation of naturalists, 

 and an attempt at boycotting the over-collectors, 

 would do something towards meeting the evil. He 

 i uite willing to see some of the collecting- 

 ground temporarily enclosed altogether, if neces- 

 sary for the protection of species. It would also be 

 necessary to define over-collecting with regard to 

 certain species, and the 1 ommittee in our own 

 society had been formed largely with the view of 

 recommending limits to the collecting of certain 

 species amongst ourselve . But if any success 

 i hi 1 lists must pull alti igethei 

 itone untui tied to itop theevil, it was 

 clearly the duty of 0111 ocict\ in do what it could 

 in the matter, and wi I each submll ti b 



thi -ill of the majority. 



Mr Bai ot tho 1 'i ' ollei ting would 



probably die a natural death in facl li • already 



