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THE TOUNG NATUBALIST. 



concerned, of the 300 species he had received from St. Petersburg, none 

 showed the slightest melanism. He was not, however, disposed to think that 

 this fact destroyed Lord Walsingham's theory as Mr. Dobree had 

 stated, but it modified and confined the phenomenon to the higher latitudes 

 of the British Isles, and to high altitudes. He had, whilst travelling on the 

 continent, noticed the extreme clearness of the atmosphere. In Bohemia, 

 Italy, and Spain, this was the case in the greatest degree, and in the moun- 

 tains of Switzerland and the Tyrol it was almost as great, but constantly in- 

 terrupted by dense mists and clouds ; it was precisely in these altitudes, that 

 melanism became rather the rule than the exception. This uncertain condition 

 of weather was characteristic of the British Isles, and the result was that our 

 indigenous lepidoptera were, as a rule, darker in colour than the continental, 

 and the tendency to melanism increased northwards until it might be said to 

 culminate in the Shetlands. If he was correct in his views — and he thought 

 the facts brought forward were in accordance with Mr. Dobree' s — then it 

 followed that in the British Isles and in the mountains of Europe, it was 

 essential to the imagines of lepidoptera that they should rapidly take 

 advantage of transient gleams of sunshine, and this the darkening of their 

 colouration enabled them to do. 



Mr. George Smith of " The Scropticon Company " then gave an exhibition 

 of photo-micrographic slides, being photographs of the enlarged image of the 

 microscopic object. 



March 10th, 1887. — The President, in the chair. Messrs. D. J. Bice 

 and H. H. Druce were elected members. Mr. Goldthwaite exhibited male 

 and female specimens of ISyssia hispidaria, Hub., bred by him this year. 

 Mr. J. W. Hater, a variety of Arctia caja, L., having the red colour replaced 

 by a yellowish or buff colour, and he stated that it had been bred by Mr. 

 Mutch, of Hornsey, who had fed a number of larvae on lime, and others on 

 the usual food-plants of the species, with the result that all those fed on lime 

 produced yellow varieties, the others being normal. A discussion ensued as 

 to the effect of strange foods in rearing varieties. Mr. E. Adkin, Hermina 

 {Zanclognatha) iarsipennalis, Tr., and remarked that nearly twelve months had 

 elapsed, between the escape of the eggs and the emergence of the imagines. Mr. 

 Billiups exhibited Tapinoma melanocephalum, For., taken in the Palm House, 

 Kew Gardens, on a species of palm (Howea grisebachia) from Tropical Aus- 

 tralia, and he stated that it was the first recorded capture in Europe of this 

 ant, and brought the number of exotic ants found in Kew Gardens, by 

 Messrs. Smith, Saunders and himself up to seven species. Mr. E. Step con- 

 tributed a paper on " Mosses" which was illustrated by diagrams and the 

 exhibition of microscopical specimens. — H. W. Barber, Hon, Sec. 



