i8 9 3.] THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 229 



but, nevertheless, if it should ever be my lot to see another 

 Galii year and should not have the kindly loan of a hot-house, 

 I should adopt a similer plan, on a smaller scale, and certainly main- 

 tain the temperatures given above, as far as possible, which with very 

 little mechanical ability could be easily achieved. 



I saw 90 odd larvae of D. galii in the possession of our late lamented 

 member Mr. F. Archer, and I believe he added many more. Mr. 

 Archer told me he should place his pupae in the kitchen on the top of 

 the clock. I saw him the following year when he told me that only 

 some half-dozen imagines had hatched and he feared that the rest of 

 his pupae had rotted. 



I felt grieved that so many imagines had perished of what I con- 

 sider the most beautiful of all the British Sphingidae. 



P.S. — I think it advisable to add, that although D. galii was so 

 abundant in 1887 at its old Cheshire habitat, in 1888, I failed to find a 

 single specimen of the larva on the Prestatyn Sandhills — although I 

 spent many hours searching for them — at the same time when they 

 were abundant at Wallasey. I think this is of importance as 

 Prestatyn, I am told, is also one of its old habitats. 



Reports of Societies. 



CITY OF LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL 



HISTORY SOCIETY. 



October 4th, 1893. — Henry John Elwes, Esq., f.l.s., f.z.s., President, in the chair. 

 Mr. Arthur Ernest Gibbs, f.l.s., of The Hollies, St. Albans, was elected a Fellow 

 of the Society. Mr. F. Merrifield exhibited specimens showing the effects of 

 temperature in the pupal stage on several species of Lepidoptera. Vanessa polychloros 

 was much darkened, especially towards the hinder margin, by a low temperature. 

 Vanessa c-album showed effects on both sides, especially in the female ; they were 

 striking on the under side. Several examples of the striking effect produced by 

 temperature on the summer emergence (prorsa) of Araschnia levana were exhibited. 

 Some Vanessa io showed the gradual disintegration, by exposure to a low temperature, 

 of the ocellus on the fore wing, which in the extreme specimens ceased to be an 

 ocellus, and was a remarkable confirmation of Dr. Dixey's views of the origin of that 

 ocellus, as exemplified in the plate attached to his paper in the Entomological 

 Society's Tnansactions for 1890. Mr. Goss stated that in his experience of V. c-album 

 in Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire, the form 

 with the pale underside was the first brood, occurring in June and July ; and that 

 the second brood, occurring from the end of July to October, was invariably dark on 

 the underside. Mr. Jacoby, Mr. Merrifield, and the President continued the 

 discussion. Mr. A. H. Jones exhibited Lepidoptera collected in Corsica in June 

 last, including dark forms of Polyommatus phlceas (Vizzavona) ; Lycana astrarche, in 

 which the orange marginal band is very brilliant on upper and under sides of both 

 wings (Vizzavona) ; Lycoena argus, the females of which are much suffused with blue, 

 probably var. calliopis; a series of Vanessa urtica var. ichnusa, bred from larvae found 

 at Vizzavona (4000 feet) ; Argynnis elisa, Satyr us semele var. aristatis, Satyrus neomiris, 

 Coenonympha cor/nna, both spring and summer brood (Vizzavona) ; Syrichthus sao var. 



