SOCIETIES. 219 



pollens exhibited by Mr. Mathew. He considered that until the matter 

 of its specific distinctness was finally settled, Mr. Barrett had erred 

 on the right side in giving it a distinctive name, even if the name 

 subsequently fell as an aberration of L. pallens. Dr. Chapman com- 

 municated a paper " On the Phylogeny and Evolution of the Lepido- 

 ptera from a pupal and oval standpoint." — W. W. Fowler, Hon. Sec. 



South London Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 May 14:th, 1896.— R. South, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the chair. 

 Mr. Enock exhibited specimens of two very rare aquatic Hymenoptera, 

 Frestwicliia aquatlca, which uses its legs in swimming, and which has 

 not been recorded since its first capture in 1865 ; and Caraphractus 

 cinctus= Polynema natans, which uses its wings in swimming. Mr. R. 

 Adkin, a bred series of Melanippe hastata, from Sutherland, with series 

 of the same from Sussex and Co. Cork ; the larvae of the first were 

 fed on Myrica gale ; the Cork series had a pale ochreous tone instead 

 of the usual dead white ground ; the southern series were very uni- 

 form, whereas the northern examples varied considerably in the black 

 markings. Mr. Barrett, series of Abraxas iilmata and Pieris rapa 

 var. cruci/eranim, from Japan. The former were of the British type, 

 but the latter equalled P. brassicm in size, had a considerable suffusion 

 of black from the base, and in some of the females a partial fusion of 

 the spots. In the discussion which ensued it was suggested that it 

 might be the result of abundance of succulent food. Mr. Carrington 

 remarked on the hardy constitution of the species in Canada, where it 

 experienced extremes of temperature from 60° to 138° Mr. Tutt 

 noted the oscillation in abundance and rarity of P. rapm in America, 

 where it had survived after a great struggle with a closely allied in- 

 digenous species, with which it was supposed to have interbred, and 

 which was now very rare. Mr. Tutt exhibited, for Mr. Merrifield, a 

 number of specimens bred under various degrees of heat and cold — 

 Aijlais urtica, Pyrameis atalanta, Euvanessa antiopa, and Gonepteryx 

 rhanuii. He described the variations in detail, and remarked that it 

 was mainly the upper sides which had been affected, whereas the 

 under sides, which in the Rhopalocera were developed for protection, 

 were but slightly influenced. 2\ orbona (var. curtisii) and these species 

 were not parallel cases of variation, as in the former it was the upper 

 side that was protectively coloured. Mr. Tutt read a paper entitled 

 "Is Cold the cause of Melanism in Scotch specimens of Triphayia 

 orbona? " in which he showed, by magazine references, that the area of 

 distribution of var. curtisii was by no means the coldest portions of 

 the country, and that there the sallows flowered quite as early as in 

 the South of England. He was of opinion that the variation was 

 wholly brought about by utility, that the species was protectively 

 coloured. In the subsequent discussion several members considered 

 that the dark variation in this species was a return to the ancestral 

 form, and that every evidence showed that the processes of evolution 

 were still in progress. 



May 28//1.— C. G. Barrett, Esq., F.E.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. Mr. A. H. Bartlett, M.A., 34, Vanbrugh Park, Blackheath, 

 was elected a member. Mr. McArthur exhibited a bred series of 

 Hypsipetes ruberata and H, trifasciata, from Hoy, which as imagines 



