December ^th, i8g8.'\ PROCEEDINGS. xxiii 



[Microscopical and Natural History Section^ 

 Ordinary Meeting, December 5th, 1898. 



Mark Stirrup, F.G.S., President of the Section, in the Chair. 



Mr. C. H. ScHiLL exhibited collections of Australian 

 Cossidce and Hepialidce. 



Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill exhibited a very unusual variety of 

 Vanessa urticcs hmn., in the fore-wings of which the whole of the 

 six black spots and blotches, viz., the three bordering on the 

 front costal margin and the three central blotches, are all suffused 

 together by a semi-circular black-brown band, the innermost 

 of the three costal blotches just mentioned above being still 

 perceptible, while the red-brown system is restricted to a small 

 central area extending through a narrow passage (the two parts 

 of the semi-circular blotch) to the anal margin. The neuration 

 passing through this red-brown area is also markedly black. 



The hinder marginal blue spots are likewise absent, there 

 being instead a cinereous black semi-transparency and suffusion. 

 Hind-wings quite normal in every way. 



The specimen was captured by the Rev. A. H. Melvill, M. A., 

 at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in 1889, and may be considered 

 one of the most striking colour-aberrations of the small 

 tortoiseshell butterfly yet discovered. 



Mr. H. W. Freston exhibited a fine pair of Dysdera crocota, 

 found near Bristol ; a pair of Trochosa cinerea, captured in 

 Montgomery, last August, and a pair of Tegenaria atrica from 

 Gloucestershire. These large spiders are rarely seen, owing to 

 their remaining concealed during the day under stones along 

 river banks; the last recorded specimens were found in 1836, in 

 Yorkshire. 



Mr. Mark Sykes exhibited and described specimens of the 

 genus Fhrynus, intermediate between scorpions and spiders. 



Mr. J. R. Hardy exhibited specimens of Phrygania maclach- 

 lania, caddisflies from Japan. 



