xlvi Mi7iutes of Proceedings. 



Mr. Finlay, Dr. Gill, Mr. Four^ade (a visitor) and Mr. Howard (a 

 visitor) took part in the short discussion that ensued. 



The President, in Mr. Moodie's absence, proceeded with the reading 

 of Mr. Moodie's paper on the Northern Gold Fields, and a vote of 

 thanks to Messrs. Guthrie and Moodie closed the proceedings. 



Ordinary Monthly Meeting. 



Wednesday, March 27, 1889. 



Mr. W. H. Finlay, M.A., F.R.A.S., President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. G. P. Moodie and F. S. Lewis, M.A., were duly elected 

 Ordinary Members of the Society. 



Mr. P. Trimen exhibited specimens of the " Silver Moth " {Leto 

 Venus)., from the Knysna, district of the Cape Colony, where they 

 had been collected by Miss Newdigate, and by the late Mr. W. K. 

 Newdigate, near Forest Hall, Flettenberg Bay. 



He called attention to the great size and beauty of this splendid 

 insect, features the more remarkable because the moth belonged to a 

 family {HepialidcR) of which the great majority presented small 

 stature and very dull colouring. Specimens of three South African 

 species of HepialidcE were exhibited in illustration of the ordinary 

 members of the family. 



Another point of interest was the very limited district which the 

 Silver Moth inhabits. No examples are recorded to have occurred in 

 the Eastern Districts of the Colony, Kaffraria, or Natal ; nor is it 

 known from the interior or from any part of Tropical Africa. Miss 

 Newdigate, who has had a long and intimate acquaintance with the 

 insect, states that the Western limit of its range known to her is 

 Oakhurst, between George and Knysna and the Eastern limit Storm 

 River. The Zitzikamma forest tract may thus be said to constitute 

 the only habitat of Leto Venus, though this is rendered difficult to 

 understand by the fact that the caterpillar's only known food is the 

 wood of the Keurboom {Virgilia Cape7isis) a familiar leguminous 

 tree, with sweet scented pink-and-u hite flowers which has a wide 

 distribution in the South of the Colony. 



The moth is only found from the middle of January to the middle 

 of March, and between the hours of four and six p.m. 



