1892.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



yellow by the action of cyanide. Mr. Southey : a very fine series of Notodonta drom- 

 edavius from Highgate Woods. Dr. Buckell : a series of Selenia illiniaria bred from a 

 pair of last summers brood. From these ova, two larvae fed up and emerged last 

 autumn and were of the aestival form, but the remainder went over until this spring 

 and produced the vernal form. Mr. Milton ; Colymbetes notatus, Agabus conspersus, 

 Hydrobius oblongus and Hydroporus panillelograinmus. Mr. Heasler ; Anchomenus viduus 

 and Si}iiiieb/its papposus from Mitcham. Dr. Buckell read a paper by Mr J. Alston 

 Moffatt, from the Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario, Canada for i8gi, 

 on the microscopical appearance of the unexpanded wings of Callosomia promethea. 

 A most interesting discussion ensued, in which Drs. Buckell and Sequeira and 

 Messrs Clark, Simes, Bayne and others took part. A. U. Battley and j. A. Simes, 

 Hon. Sees. 



THE SOUTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL 



HISTORY SOCIETY. 



April 14th.- — C. G. Barrett Esq., F E.S., President, in the chair. Mr. South 

 exhibited several series of Areiia eaja, and read notes on the variations of this species 

 and said there were two questions which suggested themselves, viz, were rare 

 varieties the result of some occult influences of which we had no knowledge or were 

 they the offspring of well matched parents ? It occurred to him that increase or 

 decrease of dark color was really due to what might be termed accident of birth. 

 Mr. South also exhibited specimens of A. eaja, artificially darkened by being killed 

 with nicotine just after the expansion of the wings and before they had dried. Mr. 

 C. G. Barrett exhibited a long series of Noctua festiva, from all parts of the British 

 Isles including Shetland and stated that Mr. Hart of Dublin had taken what appear- 

 ed to be a partial second brood and some of these were comparable to the so-called 

 Noctua conflua, Mr. Barrett expressed the opinion that the series shewn were all one 

 species. Mr. Adkin also exhibited series of N . festiva from P^orres, Rannock, and 

 Shetland. Mr. Tug well southern forms of ^V. festiva, specimens from Aberdeen and 

 one from Kincardinshire similar to the Shetland form. In the discussion which 

 ensued Mr. Tugwell remarked that the late Mr. Doubleday was of opinion that 

 Noetua festiva and conflua were indentical. Mr. Lewcock said that from an 

 examination of Mr. Tutt's long series of festiva and conflua he could observe no 

 satisfactory specific distinction. Mr. Fenn questioned the appearance of a second 

 brood in so short a time. In the examples he had from Shetland some had narrow 

 and others broad wings, and he expressed an opinion that the narrowness of the 

 wings arose, from the hardness of the conditions of life to which the species was 

 exposed in the Shetlands and was a kind of immaturity. Mr. South said that Mr, 

 Tutt based his distinctions of Noctua festiva from conflua, mainly on the shape of the 

 wings, whereas Treitschke in his description of the last named species did not refer 

 to shape; the original types came from the Reisenbitge Mountain in Silesia. Since 

 then specimens had been obtained from Iceland and referred to the conflua of 

 Treitschke ; the Shetland specimens were not in any way referable to this type, 

 but were the var. tJiulei of Staudinger : The narrow wings in his opinion were not 

 due to immaturity but were an aid to strong flight which was often a necessity in 

 bleak localities. The moorland form of festiva was not peculiar to the north as he 

 had taken it in Devonshire. Mr. Barrett exhibited a specimen of Notodonta bicolor, 

 which was taken in Devonshire in 1880, and until recently had been in a local 

 collection under the name of Notodonta cucuUina. Mr. Lewcock, vars. Silpha atrata 

 from English, Scotch and Irish localities, var. rotundaria collected from the Orkneys 

 and Ireland, also Mcsites tardii, Curt., male and female to show that in the male the 

 antennae are inserted nearer the apex of the rostrum than in the female and that the 



