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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Dover, and a bred series of Acidalia inornata 

 were also exhibited by Mr. South. Mr. H. 

 Montgomery, on behalf of E. Montgomery, a 

 series of bred P. napi including specimens with 

 traces of an additional spot, and read notes 

 on the variation shown in the series. He also ex- 

 hibited a uniformly xanthic specimen of Epinephele 

 tithonus, and a specimen of Abraxas grossulariata 

 having an additional complete band on the hind 

 wings. Mr. McArthur, a specimen of Arctia caja 

 with perforated wings, which had been caused by 

 the larva changing on the sandy bottom of the 

 cage, a piece of grit piercing the wing case. There 

 was also an indentation in the hind margin, 

 perfectly ciliated, which had no doubt been caused 

 by a similar obstruction. Mr. Cockerell com- 

 municated a note upon a peculiar case of protective 

 colouration observed by him in Mexico. In a clump 

 cf orange composite flowers he saw a Vanessid 

 pupa and a larva of a Sphinx about to change its 

 skin. Mr. Ficklin, a series of Polia flavicincta from 

 Cornwall, small, but brightly marked. — Hy. J. 

 Turner, Hon. Report. Sec. 



North London Natural History Society. 

 —September 16th, Mr. C. Nicholson, F.E.S., 

 President, in the chair. Exhibits : Mr. Oldham, 

 among numerous other species, Neuria saponariae 

 from Lincolnshire, and a var. of Noctua xantlio- 

 grapha from Woodford, all taken this year. 

 Miss Martin, Mar chant ia polymorpha in fruit. Mr. 

 Simes remarked on the present abundance in 

 Epping Forest of squirrels, jays and marsh-tits. 

 He had seen ten squirrels that day between 

 Chingford and Theydon. Mr. Culpin made some 

 remarks relative to the habits of a large Australian 

 cicada, a specimen of which he exhibited. The 

 lavae of this interesting insect lived underground, 

 and the pupae walked some distance up a tree trunk 

 just before emergence. Mr. Jennings read an 

 " Explanatory Paper on the Order Hymenoptera," 

 in which he described in detail the classification 

 of that group of insects and the habits of many 

 of the more interesting families. After giving the 

 distinguishing characters by which the Hymenop- 

 tera are separated from other orders, he said they 

 were primarily divided into two groups, Tere- 

 brantia and Aculeata, the former comprising those 

 characters in which the ovipositor is chiefly used 

 as a saw or borer, and the latter those in which it 

 is modified into a sting. He then worked through 

 the families in detail, and described the economy 

 and structural peculiarities of each. In the 

 Ichneumonidae he referred to the interesting 

 question whether it is possible for a lepidopteron 

 to recover from the attack of an ichneumon, and 

 cited the case of the lava of Acherontia atropos, bred 

 by the Rev. A. P. Morres, of Salisbury, which had 

 pupated in the ordinary way and emerged as a 

 perfect moth, but in the body of which, on its 

 being opened for the purpose of preservation, a 

 large ichneumon maggot had been found. He 

 stated that it was the opinion of the Rev. T. A. 

 Marshall (who had written a short paper on the 

 above case in the " Entomological Monthly Maga- 

 zine," for December, 1896) that if left to nature this 

 particular moth would ultimately have recovered. 

 The paper was accompanied by a small collection 

 illustrative of the more typical families in each of 

 the two primary divisions. Messrs. Culpin, Harvey, 

 L. J. Tremayne, Prout, Bacot, and C. B. Smith took 

 part in an interesting discussion which followed. 



City of London Entomological and Natural 

 History Society. — September 7th, 1897. Mr. J. 

 W. Tutt, F.E.S., President, in the chair. Exhibits : 



Mr. Tutt, rare aberrations of Abraxas ulmata, from 

 Mr. Dutton, of York ; also, on behalf of Mr. Tuck, 

 nests of Bombus lapidarius, taken on August 13th 

 at Tostock, near Bury St. Edmunds ; these were 

 all attacked by Aphomia sociella (colonella) ; repre- 

 sentatives of the two bombi and the vespa, whose 

 nests were exhibited ; also an aberration of Melanippe 

 fluctuata without markings, except a very small basal 

 patch and the central discoidal spot. This was 

 taken three or four days before at Boxhill. Mr. 

 Oldham, pink variety Scabiosa succisa from Epping 

 Forest, and varieties of lepidoptera. Mr. Garland, 

 a light specimen of Sphinx ligustri, bred, four Smer- 

 inthus tiliae, one type and three others showing the 

 band-like mark much reduced, bred from South 

 Tottenham pupae this season ; aberrations of male 

 and female Angerona prunaria, bred from larvae 

 from Chepstow, Monmouthshire. Mr. Sauze, 

 specimens of Myrmeleonformicarhts and Tipulagigantea 

 collected by Mr. Tutt at Suza. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural His- 

 tory Society. — At the meeting of October 15th, 

 Mr. Rickard exhibited a specimen of Choerocampa 

 celerio taken recently in Cambridgeshire and an 

 imago of Carpocapsa saltitum, reared from the so- 

 called "jumping bean"; he also exhibited some 

 small ichneumons, bred from a probably detoid 

 larva. He said that they were peculiar in that 

 they did not kill their host, and he believes that 

 they inhabit the alimentary canal of the caterpillar 

 and escape by the ventral orifice. He has seen the 

 caterpillar carrying the cocoon made by one of 

 these larvae, holding it with the anal claspers for 

 some days. Mr. Farren exhibited a variety of 

 Dianthoecia conspersa from Shetland, C. corylata var. 

 albo-crenata from Rannock, and Taeniocampa gothica 

 var. gothacina from Loch Laggan. Dr. Sharp 

 exhibited several South American cocoons of two 

 species, one bombycoid, the other psychid. One 

 of the former contained a large ichneumon cocoon, 

 in which again were smaller ones of another species, 

 while two others had been used by a mason-wasp 

 and a leaf-cutting bee respectively to make their 

 nests in. The psychid cocoons were tubular, about 

 four inches long and half-an-inch thick, the females 

 being largest, and it appeared that the female 

 moths never leave the cocoon, for one of them was 

 found hardly free from the large chrysalis, 

 embedded in soft scales, and almost maggot-like in 

 appearance. Although the larva spend a large 

 part of their lives in these cocoons, yet a large 

 proportion were found to have been killed by 

 parasites. Mr. Bedford exhibited three varieties of 

 Epinephele hyperanthus, taken near Brockenhurst at 

 the end of June ; in the first, a female belonging to 

 the " lanceolate " type, all the parts of each ocellus 

 were correspondingly enlarged, the central pupil in 

 some being considerably elongated ; in the second, 

 a male, the aberration affected the fore-wings only, 

 and consisted in a tendency for the yellow band ot 

 each ocellus to spread over the surface of the 

 wing, forming irregular and quite asymmetrical 

 blotches, the rest of the ocellus being quite normal ; 

 the third case was that of a mnle in which the 

 right hind wing only was abnormal, both the black 

 and yellow bands of all the ccelli, except that 

 nearest to the anal angle, being so much enlarged 

 as to run into one another, forming a black streak 

 surrounded by yellow, covering the greater part of 

 the wing and traversed by the wing rays, which 

 were dusted over with yellow scales ; the pupils of 

 three of the ocelli were quite normal, that of the 

 fourth (next to the costal margin) was barely 

 visible. 



