THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



87 



adopted by Stephens. Further back Haworth called it Idas, Lewin, by 

 which name it was introduced to the British fauna in 1795. To settle the 

 various claims is very difficult, but unless the insect be really the Alexis of 

 Scopoli, I see no reason tor altering the name we are so well used to. Esper 

 did not give the name Medon himself but took it from HufFnagle, thus carry- 

 ing that name back to 1766. Staudinger however, doubts whether Huff- 

 nagle's insect was really this species, but there is no doubt as to it being the 

 Medon of Esper, and that gives Medon precedence over the name he adopts 

 Astrarche. Agestis was given to it in 1776, by the authors of the "Vienna 

 Catalogue/' but in the catalogue only, and this name has been followed by 

 Hubner, Ochsenbeimer, Godart, Freyer, and Gerrhard, as well as British 

 authors. Medon has been used by Esper and Borkhausen, but no writer 

 except Bergstrassen himself uses the name Astrarche, which it is now pro- 

 posed to substitute for that by which it is generally known. 



REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OE LONDON. 



April 6. 1887.— Dr. David Sharp, M.B., F.Z.S., President, in the chair. 



Mr. Francis Galton, M.A., F.R.S., of 42, Rutland Gate, S.W.; Mr. John 

 Henry Leech, B.A., F.L.S., of 10, Hyde Park Terrace, W.; and Mr. George 

 S. Parkinson, of Percy Cross, Eulham, S.W., were elected Fellows. 



Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited specimens of Arctia mendica, collected in the 

 county of Cork, in Ireland, by Mr. M'Dowall, of Manchester. The peculi- 

 arity of the Cork form of the species is that the majority of the males are as 

 white as the female of the English form ; and although smoky-coloured 

 specimens occur, intermediate between the Irish and English forms, the typical 

 black or English form appears to be unknown in Cork. 



Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited a zinc box used by anglers for the purpose of 

 keeping living flies in, which he thought might be adapted to practical en- 

 tomological use in the field. 



Mr. George T. Porritt exhibited a large number of specimens of Hybernia 

 progemmaria, bred from moths collected at Huddersfield, last spring. All 

 ; the females and a large proportion of the males were of the dark variety 

 fuscata, which formerly was almost unknown in Yorkshire, but which now 

 seemed likely to replace the paler and original type. 



Mr. Jenner Weir and Lord Walsingham, both remarked that the number 

 of melanic forms appeared to be on the increase in the North, and suggested 

 explanations of the probable causes of such increase. 



