70 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
in appearance. I also took Microp- 
teryx unimaculella very large and 
finely marked, Amphisa prodromana 
very large and finely colored, and a 
beautiful Peronea mixtana almost 
white. These and a couple of dozens 
of Lobophora Lobulata in fine order, 
made up my day’s work. At night 
nothing of note turned up, — only 
ordinary species and a specimen of 
Tephrosia Bubitata. The weather 
has been very rough since. By the 
way, the same day, I took a fine 
Bepressaria Bouglasella, and was 
sadly mortified, when I got home, to 
find it had disappeared either by my 
having lost the box, or by its having 
given me the slip, when I expected 
it was all safe. J. B. Hodgkinson, 
Witherslack, Newton-in - Cartmell. 
Selenia Lunaria bred. I was much 
surprised, yesterday, on looking into 
one of my breeding cages to find that 
a pair of Selenia lunaria had emerged 
from the pupa. June is the month 
in which the imago is generally sup- 
posed to occur, and my previous ob- 
servations tended to confirm the cor- 
* rectness of that supposition. A refer- 
ence to my journal shows that I have 
captured the perfect insect on three 
seperate dates, — all in June. Am I 
to attribute the early appearance of 
these two specimens to the mildness 
of the season, or to the fact that the 
insect is, like its congeners, double 
brooded ? The cage in which the 
pupa) were, has been indoors all win- 
ter, but in a very cold room. In 
fact I have bred a good many more 
species from the same cage, — but all, 
when I was taking them at large. 
No one specimen except these two, 
has emerged before its time. Even 
now I have living pupae of S. Illun- 
aria which have not yet come out. I 
can scarcely suppose that the mild 
spring has had so much effect as to 
bring out these insects two months 
before their time. There is quite en- 
ough time for another brood in June. 
If anyreaders of the ‘ Entomologist ’ 
have also met with S. m lunaria in 
Spring, I should be very glad if they 
would let us know through the medi- 
um of its pages. 
Among my early captures this year, 
I ma y mention P. Pilosaria and IT. 
Leucophearia common, early in Janu- 
ary ; A. Prodromaria and N. Ilispi- 
daria on Eeb. 24th. and C\ P lavicornis 
in abundance on March 5th. T. 
Blackburn, Bowdon, Cheshire, April > 
9. 1863. 
MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES- 
Bowdon and Altrincham Entomo- 
logical Society. — The Monthly 
meeting of the above Society was 
held at the residence of Mr. W. H. 
Cash, on Monday evening, April 6. 
1863, Mr. T. Blackburn, President, 
in the chair. 
Mr. Ernest Geldart, read a paper 
on the economy of Vespa vulgaris. 
Mr. E. M. Geldart, read a paper 
on “ The stability of specific forms.” 
In this paper he made a severe attack 
on Mr. Darwin’s work, and conclu- 
ded by expressing his own views of 
the subject. As these opinions were 
