I89I.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



of E. hyperanthus, and also a large specimen of a variety of the female of Euchloe 

 cardamines, bred from ova obtained in South Cork, with the hind wings of an ochreous- 

 yellow colour. Coloured drawings illustrating the life-history of the specimen in all 

 its stages were also exhibited. 



Mons. Serge Alpheraky communicated a paper entitled " On some cases of 

 Dimorphism and Polymorphism among Palsearctic Lepidoptera." — H. Goss, 

 Hon. Sec. 



THE SOUTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL 



HISTORY SOCIETY. 



August 13th. — W. H. Tugwell, Esq., President, in the chair. Exhibits: Mr. J. 

 Jenner Weir exhibited Psyche villosclla, and illustrated its life history with living larvae 

 of different ages, and gave most interesting details of its case making, larval habits 

 and manner of pairing. He also exhibited Pyrameis cardui remarking on its very wide 

 distribution, and the want of colour difference in the sexes. Along with this he 

 exhibited Pyvameis dejeanii in which the male so closely resembled cardui. that it 

 might readily be passed as that species, but the female, totally different both in colour 

 and markings, more like atalanta in style of marking, but with the red band replaced 

 with another colour. Mr. Frohawk exhibited some remarkable large and fine ? 

 Cardamines, particularly well marked, bred ; he also brought a pet common snake, 

 giving details of its crawling up and lying round his back for warmth. Mr. West 

 showed a nice series of A . ophiogramma captured about his own garden. This species 

 occurs round London in gardens where the ribbon grass on which the larvae feed, is 

 grown. Mr. Watson also showed ophiogramma. Mr. Fenn exhibited a grand var. of 

 0. potatoria, a female of a dark smoky-fuscous colour, not the form with male colora- 

 tion, but a much rarer variation. A curious hermaphrodite Pieris rape?, the right side 

 superior wing being ? , the left s , whilst the right inferior wing is rather cf and the 

 left ? , so that, as Mr. Jenner Weir remarked, the insect is quartered. A bleached 

 form of E. j antra led to a discussion on the cause of this form. Mr. Carrington 

 expressed the opinion that the cause of this bleaching was not from damp, or from 

 light focussed through a dew drop on the pupa, but was rather to be attributed to 

 hereditry. He had been paying particular attention to this insect for several years 

 and his experience was that they always occurred in particular localities, and he 

 judged that several of the same brood inherited the peculiarity. Mr. J. H. Carpenter 

 showed a beautiful variety of E. hyperanthus, on the upper side of the inferior wings 

 the ocelli on the underside were also extremely large. Mr. W. H. Tugwell exhibited 

 some very dark and well-marked Pyra.'/s farinalis, specimens of Dioryctria decuriella Huh, 

 =N cphopteryx abietella S. V. bred from shoots of Scotch fir, bearing Retinea resinella nodes, 

 which had been collected by Mr. W. Reid in Scotland. He called attention to the 

 fact that the larvae differed considerably from Dr. Hoffman's description of abietetla 

 larva, suggesting a possibility of there being two species. He also shewed abeautifu^ 

 variety of Botys urticalis in which the usual black spots were united into long black 

 dashes. He also brought 50 set specimens of H. lineola for free distribution to those 

 members who were unable to attend the field day at Leigh, on the 25th July. Mr. 

 Hawes shewed living larvae of tw species of Skipper. Mr. Hawes is one of our 



