46 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



mentioned having bred N, hispidaria on Sunday and Monday previously, 6th 

 and 7th inst. The evening was set apart for the distribution of surplus 

 insects, there were about 1000 specimens, many rare. 



February 17th. Mr. Pearson in tbe chair. Mr. Lusby exhibited a very 

 line box containing varieties of L. alexis females. Mr. Pearson, specimens 

 of Leucanus cervns. Mr. Clark, specimens of Biundularia. Mr. Gurney 

 mentioned having bred N. hispidaria, and Mr. Clark had seen a specimen of 

 P. pilosaria taken in Victoria Park. — J. Russell, Secretary. 



SOUTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY 



SOCIETY. 



January Zlth. — R. South, Esq., E.E.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Messrs. F. Barclay and C. Roberts were eleeted members. Mr. J. Jenner 

 Weir exhibited Nilasera pirama, Moore, and N, amantes ; also a piece of 

 amber containing three specimens of Chrysomelidm, one of Coccinilidoe, and a 

 species of Orthoptera. Mr. Billups living specimens of Rhagium bifasciatum, 

 Eab., from Braemar, and contributed notes. Mr. J. J. Weir communicated 

 a paper " Notes on the comparative rarity of Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera, once 

 common in the neighbourhood of Lewes." In the course of the paper Mr. 

 Weir said that Aporia cratczgi was very abundant at Keymer in the year 1838, 

 the following year he saw but one, and although he visited the locality for 15 

 years afterwards he never saw the species there again ; and it appeared from 

 Mr. Jenner, of Lewes, that the insect was now extinct in the district. He 

 was of opinion that in the earlier decades of the century, a flight of this 

 insect visited Sussex from some part of the Continent, and that the climate 

 had not been favourable to its permanent establishment, and that it had 

 gradually become extinct. The species had almost entirely disappeared from 

 the New Forest, where it was at one time very abundant. Leucophasia sina- 

 j)is 3 which according to Mr. Jenner, was rare where formerly found, was a 

 case of an indigenous insect becoming extinct in certain parts of Sussex, which 

 from the weakness of its flight was not likely to have flown over from the 

 Continent. Melitcea artemis (aurinia) he had never met with in Sussex, al- 

 though at one time it was extremely abundant. Vanessa c-album, which was 

 now extinct in Sussex, was at one time so common in the hop-gardens, that 

 the peasants had a local name for the larva, viz. the " Silver Bug." After 

 referring to several other species in detail, Mr. Weir said, in conclusion, that 

 as to the cause of the progressive rarity of the species mentioned, he could not 

 hazard a conjecture, but he felt tolerably certain that it had not been brought 

 about by the Entomologists, although in some instances man might be the 

 cause, by the cultivation of the soil and the eradication of the food-plant of 



