68 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Yerbury, R.A. It was announced that the President would appoint 

 Dr. D. Sharp, Mr. Roland Trimen, and Mr. W. F. H. Blandford, Vice- 

 Presidents lor the Session 1896-1897. Prof. Meldola then deUvered 

 an Address, in which he first drew attention to the remarkable 

 literary activity of the entomologists of this country during the past 

 year, referring particularly to the works recently published by Miall, 

 Meyrick, Barrett, Rye, Lucas, and Buckton ; and to the new volume of 

 * The Cambridge Natural History,' by Sedgwick, Sinclair, and Sharp. 

 Attention was also called to the interesting discoveries in insect 

 physiology by Latter and Hopkins. The main portion of the Address 

 was devoted to a plea for a more liberal use in biological work of the 

 theoretical or speculative method which had proved so fruitful in 

 other branches, and which, in the President's opinion, might with 

 advantage be more freely employed in connection with entomological 

 investigation. Illustrations were taken from the work of Bates on 

 mimicry, Wallace on the colour of insects, and Poulton's researches 

 on variable colouring, all of which had been prompted by hypothesis, 

 and which had led to discoveries of large bodies of facts which would 

 never have been gleaned by haphazard observation. In conclusion, 

 the President referred to the losses by death during 1895 of many 

 Fellows of the Society and other entomologists, special mention being 

 made of Prof. C. V. Riley, Prof. C. 0. Babington, F.R.S., The Right 

 Hon. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., M. E. L. Ragonot, Major J. N. Still, 

 Prof. Carl E. A. Gerstacker, M.D., M. Claudius Rey, M. Jules F. 

 Fallou, and Mr. W. H. TugwelL— H. Goss, Hon. Sec. 



South London Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 November 28th.— Mv. T. W. Hall, F.E.S., President, in the chair. Mr. 

 Chipps, of Barnes, S.W., was elected a member. Mr. R. Adkin exhi- 

 bited a specimen of Mesogona acetosMce, Hb., a species new to Britain ; 

 it was taken on October 26th near Brighton. Mr. Adkin also exhibited 

 a series of Coremia munitata, Hb., from Hoy, with series of the same 

 species from Shetland and Paisley, and of C. designata^ Hufn., for 

 comparison, and read notes on the variations exhibited. Messrs. 

 Barrett, Tutt, and Carrington remarked on the habit of the species of 

 flying during the daytime in elevated, exposed, and alpine regions. 

 Mr. H. Moore, a long series of Ocneria dispar, L., bred from a 

 Bordeaux female ; they were all small, owing to the larvae being fed 

 on hawthorn it was thought. Mr. Carrington, four xanthic specimens 

 of Epinephele ianira, L., from Leigh, Essex, taken in the same field in 

 189U-91 ; also he showed typical and lemon-coloured forms of Hesperia 

 lineola, L., from Shoeburyness. Mr. Clark, a number of large and 

 well-executed Micro-photographs. Mr. Hy. J. Turner, a specimen of 

 the moorland form of Moctua festivay Fb., from Carlisle ; C iambus 

 pinellus, L., from Box Hill ; a very rosy specimen of Anticlea rubidata, 

 Fb., bred, from Chichester; and a pair of Coccyx cosmophorana, Tr., 

 from Carlisle. A long discussion took place on the life-history of this 

 latter species. Mr. McArthur had bred a number from the knobs pro- 

 duced by Iletinia resuieUa, a year after they had emerged, and said that 

 he found the larvae in the Irass of this species. It was not found at 

 Rannoch, but had been recorded from several localities where U. rest- 

 nella was not known to occur. Mr. Ashdown, a bred specimen of 

 Acronycta alniy L., from Richmond; and a specimen of Eumenes 



