SOCIETIES. 375 



Birmingham. By Mr. P. W. Abbott, a specimen of Leiicania vitellina, 

 which was taken by Mr. John Hodges at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, at 

 sugar, the night of Sept. 8th, during a thunderstorm. By Messrs. A. 

 H. Martineau and C. J. Wainwright, a number of insects taken at Wyre 

 Forest during a few days spent together there at Whitsuntide : they 

 included among the Hymenoptera, Pompilus viaticus and P. spissusy 

 Osmia spinulosa, and Passalceciis gracilis ; among the Diptera, Conops 

 vesicularis, Doros conopseus, Dioctria atricapilla, D. celandica, a nice series 

 of Chrysotoxum sylvarum., Syrphus nitidicollis, and Pipizella virens ; 

 among the Lepidoptera, Hadena genista^ Tephrosia extersaria, Lobophora 

 viretata, and L. haJterata. Mr. Wainwright showed and presented a 

 map of the Birmingham plateau, as delineated by Mr. G. H. Kenrick 

 for adoption as the Society's district. 



October 19th. — Mr. E. C. Bradley in the chair. Exhibits : — By 

 Mr. Bradley, a specimen of Antithesia salicella, arranged in a natural 

 position of rest on an oak leaf to show its striking resemblance to a 

 bird excretum. Mr. W. Harrison, the six females of Lasius lonbratua 

 taken in Edgbaston, only about a mile and a half from the centre oi 

 Birmingham ; this capture was all the more remarkable as Mr. 

 Martineau had never met with it in the Midlands, and although it was 

 not usually an uncommon species, yet he did not know of any other 

 record of it near Birmingham ; also a specimen of Vanessa l-album, 

 which had been taken by Mr. B. May, of Moseley, about the year 1877, 

 at rest on a tree- trunk at Henley in Arden ; the capture was discredited 

 at the time, but there seems not the slightest reason to doubt its 

 genuineness. Mr. May has long since given up entomology, and 

 parted with his collection, all but this one specimen. Mr. Harrison 

 also exhibited a continental specimen for comparison ; that from 

 Henley was decidedly smaller and darker. By Mr. A. H. Martineau, 

 an imago and full-grown larva of Ammophila sabulosa, obtained under 

 the following singular conditions : his brother watched the wasp 

 engaged in burrowing at Newquay ; after he had seen it make its 

 hole, fetch a larva and put it in, lay an egg with it, and then fill up 

 the hole, he caught the wasp, and dug up the larva, which was a fat 

 green Noctua, and placed them altogether in a match-box, where he left 

 them and forgot them. Some time afterwards, chancing to open the 

 hox, he found the wasp, but the Noctua larva had quite disappeared, 

 and in its place was a full-grown wasp larva, which had hatched and 

 developed under these uncongenial conditions. — Colbkan J. Wain- 

 wright, Hon. Sec. 



Nonpareil Entomological and Natural History Society. — October 

 15t7i, 1896.— Mr. Thos. Jackson in the chair. Exhibits: — By Mr. 

 Huckett, living specimens of Boarmia rhomboidaria ; and a live 

 specimen of Vanessa cardui, which had only emerged that day. By 

 Mr. Gurney, series of Acronycta megacephala. Mr. Harper, on behalf 

 of Mr. Muncer, attracted a great deal of attention with a very fine 

 variety of Vanessa atalanta, which he said had been bred from larvae 

 collected on the Hackney Marshes six weeks ago. The broad red band 

 on the fore wings, which distinguishes the species, was quite straight 

 in this specimen, and not semi-angular as in the type form, owing to 

 the absence of one segment nearest the anal angle ; the white spots on 



