THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



61 



LANCASHIRE & CHESHIRE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



February gih, 1893. The President, (Mr. S. J. Capper, F.L.S., F.E.S.), who was 

 in the chair, referred to the death of -the Rev. F. O. Morris, which occurred last 

 Saturday, in his eighty-third year. — Mr. C. H. Hesketh Walker read a paper 

 entitled " Pond Life." Referring to hobbies generally, he considered natural history 

 was one of the most interesting. He then stated that a stagnant pond was a paradise 

 prolific in animal life, and poetically described it with all its attendant insects, &c, 

 showing by a table that examples of most of the animal kinghom from Protozoa to 

 Mammalia were to be found therein. Proceeding, he gave brief descriptions of these 

 animals, illustrating his remarks by rapidly drawn figures on the black board. — The 

 president exhibited some fine varieties of Arctia caja, and a number of port wine corks 

 completely riddled by some coleopterous or lepidopterous larvse. Mr. Locke, 

 Carabus glahratus from Langdale Pikes. Mr. Deville, Goliathus gigauteus, from 

 Cameroons ; and Mr. Gregson, Noctua triangulum, from Lancashire 'and London. — 

 F. N. Smith, Hon. Secretary, 143, Smithdown Lane, Liverpool. 



GUERNSEY SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE AND 



LOCAL RESEARCH. 



The usual monthly meeting was held on Wednesday, the 8th February, at the 

 Guille-Alles Library, the chair being taken by Mr. E. D. Marquand, President. The 

 following note was read by Mr. Derrick, and two of the bats referred to, which had 

 been neatly preserved and mounted by Mr. Puttock, the caretaker of Guille-Alles 

 Library, who being informed of the find, proceeded to secure some of the creatures for 

 examination, and for preservation in the museum. He found some of them hanging 

 singly, others in little clusters of from 8 to 15, there being about 60 in all. Being 

 torpid, though they shrank at the approach of light, they were easily captured. 

 They all belonged to the same species, being apparently Rhinolophus Ferrumequinum, 

 Rhinolophus is distinguished by a nasal crest. There are only two species found in 

 Britain and both are rare. The specific name Ferrumequinum is given because of the 

 fancied resemblauce of this nasal crest to a horse-shoe. These are, therefore, horse- 

 shoe bats. Ansted, in his work on the Channel Islands, gives two kinds of bats only 

 as natives of Guernsey, viz., Plecotus auritus, the long-eared bat; and Vcspertilio 

 pipistrellus, the common bat ; so that this horse-shoe bat forms an addition to the 

 list of local mammalia. There is also a specimen of the above in the museum of 

 the Guille-Alles Institution which was captured last year at the Vale Castle. Mr. 

 Collenette exhibited two rudely cylindrical masses of baked clay, bearing the im- 

 pression of the thumb and fingers. These examples were found in the Cromlech at 

 L'Ancresse by Mr. Lukis, and are exactly similar to those found at Richmond last 

 year, associated with deposits of limpet shells. Mr. F. Rose, L.D.S., of London, 

 then gave the first part of his promised lecture on " The Minute Anatomy of the 

 Teeth and Jaws of Vertebrates," which was followed by an interesting discussion. 



IS MOISTURE THE CAUSE OF MELANISM? 



BY JOHN E. ROBSON, F.E.S. 

 (Read before the City of London Entomological &> Natural History Society, Feb. 21st, 1893.) 



Entomologists have been puzzled for the last half century to ex- 

 plain the curious fact that the markings on the wings of Lepidoptera 

 in certain districts were gradually becoming darker. In those whose 

 colouring contained any portion of black, these black scales increased 

 in number until the surface was more or less suffused with them. In 



