I92I. 



Johnson. — Note^ on Lepidoptera in 1920. 



13 



moths to occur, but Stain ton (" Manual " ii., p. 317) sa^^s 

 that nearly every Depressaria hibernates. 



I was greatly struck this year with the hardiness of 

 the Speckled Wood Butterfly. It was the first to appear 

 and the last to disappear. Every gleam of sunshine brought 

 it out, and I even saw it on the wing in drizzling rain. 

 This makes its disappearance from parts of the south and 

 south-east of England more remarkable. Mr. Meyrick 

 many years ago [Ent. Mo. Mag. 1890, p. 297) remarked 

 on its disappearance from the neighbourhood of Marlborough 

 and I have this year been told by a correspondent that 

 both it and the Wall Butterfly have disappeared from Kent, 

 and I believe the same holds good of other localities where 

 both used to be abundant. 



Poyntzpass. 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



November 10. — The Club met at Leinster House. 



H. A. Lafferty (President) exhibited microscopical preparations 

 shoAsnng the spermogonial and aecidial stages of Melampsora Lini Desm, 

 as found by him on young flax plants in Ireland. These two stages 

 of the fungus were first recorded by Fromme who, in 191 2, found them 

 on flax plants in the United States of America, and they have not hitherto 

 been recognised outside that country. 



Paul A. Murphy showed dividing nuclei in the swarm-spores of a 

 myxomycete (Lycogala) and, by way of comparison, similar nuclei in 

 roots of bean and Galtonia. 



W. F. GuNN and Prof. J. A. Scott exhibited preparations showing 

 the " streaming " movement of the protoplasm of Badhamia utricularis, 

 a species of Mycetozoa. The movement was observed to continue in 

 one direction for 80 or 90 seconds, then to be reversed for a somewhat 

 shorter period, the longer period always being in the direction in which 

 the Plasmodium was advancing. In about twelve hours after the meet- 

 ing it was observed that the Plasmodium had gathered together in 

 little heaps on the rotten wood (the material on which it was feeding), 

 sporangia had formed, and spores with traces of capillitium threads 

 were already discernible in the interior of the sporangia. 



