Northern Entomological Society. 8249 



2. Eupithecia trisignata, reared from the larva. 



3. A pair of Noctua ditrapeziutn, also reared; these were very large, expanding 

 an inch and three-quarters. 



4. Sesia Sphegiformis, believed to be the first ever bred in England. 



5. Sesia Scolia;formis 



6. GEcophora grandis, from Llangollen. 



7. Pterophorus lithodactylus and P. osteodaetylus, from Llanferris. 



8. A bunch of cocoons of Eunychia cingulalis. 



9. A series of a new species of Tinea. 



10. Ten varieties of Abraxas grossulariata, bred this year, the larvae having been 

 fed on black currant and radish tops ; there was not one of the normal colouring, and 

 three of them are splendid varieties. 



Mr. C. S. Gregson sent for exhibition Pterophorus osteodaetylus, discovered by 

 himself when on the rocks at Llanferris, on the 22nd of July, 1862. 



A note from Mr. Gregson was read, in which he mentions having reared Cimbex 

 Lucorum, male and female, and its parasite, from pupae sent from Scotland by Mr. John 

 Stafford: it is a true birch-feeder, and new to Britain. 



A pupa of Petasia nubeculosa was exhibited to show the large hook or forked-tail 

 appendage. 



Mr. N. Cooke exhibited seven specimens of Sesia Scoliaeformis, four bred and the 

 other three captured by himself and son at Llangollen, on the 13ih of July, 1862. 

 The Secretary read the following note by Mr. Gregson : — 



Note on Mr. Newmans Description of the Larva of Orgyia fascelina (Zool. 8078). 



"One error in Natural History is well known to be the father of a whole race of 

 errors, but it is especially likely to be so when made by a man of Mr. Newman's 

 standing, for all book-makers will claim to be excusable if they copy his works. 

 I therefore wish to call the attention of naturalists to one or two mistakes he has 

 evidently been led into by some one who knows nothing whatever about the habits of 

 this species. Mr. Newman says the eggs are laid in August on the leaves of Salix 

 fusca. Here are two mistakes in the length of one line; the first is impossible, unless 

 the insect lives two or three months in the perfect state, for, as a rule, it appears in 

 May or June on the banks of the Mersey, and any boy knows that this species lays its 

 eggs round a rush, stick or twig of any sort, just as does Saturnia Carpini, and some 

 of the collectors in this neighbourhood would prefer searching for its eggs or larvae on 

 a thorn hedge if they wanted a supply for their friends, not but what it will and does 

 eat sallow where no thorns are, just as it eats heath where there is neither thorn nor 

 sallow. The larva? are abundant in this district on both thorn and sallow, but 

 I doubt if my practical friends here ever knew it to lay its eggs otherwise than round 

 a twig or grass stem, where it forms a beautiful symmetrical object." 



The Secretary then read the following paper by Mr. Edwin Brown, of Burton-on- 

 Trent:— 



On the Mutability of Specific or Race Forms. 



"The question how did species originate has suddenly become the most absorbing 

 scientific topic of the day, but it is doubtful whether we are ever likely to arrive at 

 more than the barest inferential evidence touching the origin (properly so speaking) of 

 species, or, in other words, at a knowledge of the earliest differentiation of forms when 

 VOL. XX. 3 I 



