Entomological Society. 3921 



Mr. H. Doubleday presented a beautiful drawing of the under side of a very singu- 

 lar variety of Polyornmatus Alexis, taken near Cambridge by the Rev. Rudston Eeid. 

 The usual ocelli were absent, but on both wings was a row of strong black marks within 

 the posterior margin, not extending outwardly beyond the red spots on the lower wings, 

 and similarly situated on the upper wings, but there the red spots were wanting. Part 

 only of the posterior ocelli are represented by black dots. 



Mr. Bond exhibited a specimen of a Psyche new to this country, pronounced by M. 

 Bruand, who was engaged on a monograph of the Psychidae, to be his P. margineni- 

 grella. Mr. Bond reared it from a case which he found attached to a tree, either in 

 Lancashire or Yorkshire. 



Mr. Edwin Shepherd exhibited a larva of Notodonta Camelina, which had been 

 attacked and killed by muscardine ; a very pale and little-marked variety of Argynnis 

 Euphrosyne ; a unicolorous variety of Fidonia atomaria ; and a specimen of the rare 

 Aleucis pictaria, taken on the 24th of April last, on the palings at Dartford Heath. 



Mr. S. J. Wilkinson exhibited larva-cases of Incurvaria Zinckenii and I. mascu- 

 lella. They were both of considerable size, and of a broad-oval form, each constructed 

 of two pieces of leaf neatly cut out and fastened together at the edges ; the former 

 species from the leaf of oak, the latter from the leaf of birch. The perfect insects, 

 which he also exhibited, had emerged, leaving the pupa-skin projecting from the case, 

 showing that the larvae had changed to pupae within the case. He also exhibited three 

 specimens of the new Lithocolletis Nicellii, reared from nut-leaves, and a cocoon of a 

 Bucculatrix? found attached to a fence. 



Mr. Stevens exhibited specimens of the fine Goliath beetles, Amarodes Passerinii 

 and Eudicella Smithii, lately received from Port Natal. 



The Chairman read a note from Mr. Weaver, stating that the insect exhibited at 

 the November meeting, reported as Bolitophagus crenicollis, should be B. crenatus ; 

 and that anothor Coleopterous insect should be added to his list of discoveries in Scot- 

 land, namely, Ampedus tristis, belonging to the family Elateridag. 



The following letter was read : — 



"Liverpool, April 30, 1853. 



"Sir, 



" Perhaps the following hints may not prove uninteresting to some of 

 the members of your Society. At your meeting on the 4th of April, a communication 

 was received from Mr. Wilson, recommending chloroform as a means of disabling 

 large Lepidoptera before pinning or killing them. Some years since, when in Swit- 

 zerland, I took great delight in making a collection of Lepidoptera, and invariably 

 found that the easiest way of killing the insects was by dropping sulphuric ether on 

 their heads. This suffocates them immediately, excepting the very large kinds, and 

 then a second dose is generally needed. In this manner I have killed Papilio Poda- 

 lirius, Parnassius Apollo and Mnemosyne, Apatura Iris, Acherontia Atropos, Sphinx 

 Convolvuli, S. Ligustri, S. Pinastri, Choerocampa Nerii, &c. 



" When the insect is captured and killed, Mr. Humphreys, in his beautiful book, 

 mentions that ■ the wings must be kept expanded by thin braces of card.' An easier 

 plan is to have a flat board, with grooves of various sizes to receive the bodies, and 

 then to keep the wings expanded by small pieces of glass until dry. The advantage 



XI. 2 D 



