THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



99 



showing an unusual and abnormal arrangement of the fruit. Mr. Mason 

 also showed specimens of the leaves and flowers of the handsome maple tree 

 which stood several years ago in Gilmorehill policies, and which, at the open- 

 ing of University Avenue, was cut down as it stood in the middle of the 

 roadway. It was known as the Corstorphine maple, and was removed in 

 1873. Mr. R. J. Bennett showed a piece of wood which formed part of a 

 bookcase in a lawyer's office in town, and which, on being removed lately, 

 was found to be completely riddled with the borings of some coleoptera, 

 probably that species known as the death watch. The veneering outside 

 seemed quite fresh, while the wood inside was almost destroyed. Strange to 

 say, a third layer of wood which was inside the case was left untouched, prob- 

 ably owing it its being of another kind. — John Mackay, Hon. Sec. 



THE NEW FOREST ZYG^NA MELILOTI. 



By W. H. TUGWELL. 



I fear my friend, Mr. Briggs, will think I am hard to convince after his 

 statements in the Young Naturalist, p.p. 82-3, because I still cling to the 

 opinion that Z. meliloti is a good species ; and by that I mean that in a state, 

 of nature it reproduces, inter se, fertile offspring like the parents, having 

 characters sufficiently developed to differentiate from any other of the same 

 genus. 



In the first place, no one will doubt but that Meliloti in the New Forest 

 does, or at least did, produce, year after year, succeeding generations of what 

 the most eminent of British lepidopterists (the late Mr. H. Doubleday) most 

 emphatically pronounced a good species. In a letter of his now before me, 

 dated July 31st, 1873, Mr. Doubleday says "This species is very distinct 

 from trifolii, being so much slenderer 3 and the wings more transparent," &c. 

 This opinion has been universally accepted by English lepidopterists. 



I will now refer to what Mr. T. H. Briggs himself remarks (as published 

 in the " Extract of Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 1875 " In 

 1872 and 1873 I reared young larva? of Z. meliloti from the New Forest, up 

 to and through hybernation, but they died in the spring ; and these larva, 

 from the minuteness of the markings on the ground colour, showed a great 

 distinction from the young larvce of Z. trifolii of the same age " ; and then 

 Mr. Briggs goes on to state " In 1874, I captured four typical pairs of Z. 

 meliloti in copula, and the eggs were (in all cases) larger than the egg of Z % 

 trifolii — a peculiarity I had remarked in previous years." From these ova 

 Mr. Briggs had over 300 larva3, and from which he ultimr.tely obtained nine 



