76 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



BY W. B. TEGETJIEIER. 



[It is proposed, under the above title, to give each month an 

 account of the more interesting communications laid before 

 the different learned and scientific societies.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— January 6. 



On the Artificial Production of Varieties in Insects. — An 

 animated discussion took place on a paper entitled, " Notes on Variety 

 Breeding," read by Mr. C. S. Gregson before the members of the 

 Northern Entomological Society at Manchester. The author of this 

 paper says : " After years of careful stndy of the habits and food of 

 insects, I determined to ascertain if a change of food would give a 

 change of colouring and marking to species liable to sport, and 

 during the last ten years I have been pursuing my experiments. The 

 results of my experience go to prove that most unqnestionably many 

 species, some of them hitherto not often thought liable to vary, may 

 be cultivated into varieties. For instance, Bucephala, fed upon 

 sycamore, is much finer and darker than when fed upon any other 

 food, though it is well known that this species is never found 

 upon that tree in its natural state. After enumerating many varia- 

 tions produced by changing the food of the larvas of insects the 

 author stated, " What will, perhaps, interest you most to know, 

 and undoubtedly what I know best, and have oftenest tried and 

 succeeded in producing, is, that Arctia caja, fed upon Petasites vul- 

 gare, or upon the common colt's-foot, will produce darker specimens 

 than when fed upon any other plant ; and the chances are, that when 

 fed upon this food, some of the specimens will prove extraordinarily 

 dark. But there is a singularity in the fact that the darkest specimens 

 so bred rarely open their wings." In opposition to the objections 

 that such variations were the result of disease, it was shown that 

 many of the specimens so varied were of larger and finer growth 

 than the ordinary specimens. In the course of the remarks on this 

 subject, Mr. J. Lubbock suggested the importance of ascertaining 

 the effect of feeding successive generations of the same insect with 

 substances calculated to produce variations, and expressed a hope 

 that some entomologists would extend the observations over a series 

 of years. 



On the Causes which Influence the Production of a Fertile 

 Queen Bee from a Worker Egg. — At a previous meeting of this 

 Society, Mr. Tegetmeier called attention to a new theory, advanced 

 by the Rev. Mr. Leitch, to account for the development of a queen 

 bee from an egg, which, under ordinary circumstances, would pro- 

 duce a sterile worker. This fact, well known to all practical 

 apiarians, was supposed by Huber to be effected by feeding the 



