240 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
Oct., 1892. 
BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ 
UNION.—August 22nd. Mr. H. Hawkes exhibited a series of skeleton 
leaves, and gave a few directions for obtaining them ; also specimens 
of Coleosporum euphrasies and Mimulus luteus, from Dolgelly ; Mr. S. 
White, a collection of plants from Wyre Forest, including Stellaria 
aquatica , Scutellaria minor , and Triglochin palustre ; Mr. J. W. Neville, 
slides of small plants mounted by a method recently described in the 
“ Microscopical Journal.” Mr. W. J. Parker then read a paper on 
“ Insect Instinct.” The writer referred to the different theories 
respecting instinct, and held that it was the result of observation, 
experience, and invention. Some instances of reflex actions, the 
result of stimuli, were given. Singular instances of instinct were 
enumerated, such as the special tasks of insects living in communities, 
the deposition of eggs by the gad-fly on such parts of a horse as can 
be reached by the tongue ; the egg-boat of gnat; the cuckoo-flies, who 
labour for a progeny they never see; the difference in the cocoons of 
insects that remain in them for a few days from those that occupy 
them until the following year ; the ingenuity of the larvae of the ant- 
lion in constructing a pit for the capture of its prey. The writer con¬ 
cluded by expressing the opinion that insects were endowed with some 
power of thinking, and to this was attributable the intelligence so 
many of them showed.—August 29th. Mr. J. Moore showed a series 
of photomicrographs of parts of insects ; Mr. J. Madison, land shells 
from the Kenilworth district; Mr. G. H. Corbett, amethystine quartz, 
from Cornwall; Mr. S. White, plants from Sutton Park, including 
Silene gallica (anglica), Melilotus officinalis , and M. alba; Mr. W. J. 
Parker, a rotifer, Mastigocerca carinata. —September 5th. Mr. J. W. 
Neville exhibited a series of objects illustrating the life history of the 
hawthorn saw-fly, Trichiosoma lucorum ; Mr. J. Moore, photographs of 
animal parasites, &c. ; Mr. J. Madison, an unnamed variety of Palu- 
dina vivipara ; Mr. J. Collins, a collection of plants from Cheltenham, 
including specimens of blue pimpernel, Anagallis ccerulea; bee orchis, 
Ophrys apifera ; and Orchis pyramidalis. Mr. H. Hawkes, suake’s-head 
coralline, Anyuinaria spatulata. —September 12th. Mr. J. Moore 
showed specimens of Colias edusa , from Sutton Park ; Mr. J. Collins, 
a collection of butterflies from the Severn valley, including specimens 
of Argynnis adippe ; Mr. J. Madison, deformed specimens of Limncea 
stagnalis. Under the microscope, Mr. J. W. Neville, palates of Zonites 
alliarius and Z. draparnaldi ; Mr. Mulliss, cuticle of oat straw. 
BIRMINGHAM ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. — September 
12th. Mr. G. H. Kenrick (Vice-President) in the chair. The following 
were exhibited :—By Mr. Neville Chamberlain, a box of Lepidoptera, 
which he had recently collected in Inverness-shire. By Mr. P. W. 
Abbott, a long series of Colias Edusa from Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 
including half a dozen of the variety Helice, and one specimen 
intermediate in colour between the var. and type. By Mr. W. Harrison, 
five local specimens of C. Edusa, captured in Trench Woods ; also 
larvae of Sphinx ligustri from the same place. By Mr. R. C. Bradley, 
Zygcena trifolii var. conftuens, and one specimen of Emmelesia tceniata, 
both from Barmouth. By Mr. G. H. Kenrick, Plusia bractcea from 
Scotland, and Euperia fulvago from Cannock Chase and Sherwood 
Forest. Mr. Colbran J. Wainwright read a paper entitled “ Isolation 
as a Factor in the Evolution of Species,” in which he pointed out the 
great total effect, direct and indirect, which isolation had in assisting 
divergence of species, and endeavoured to prove that, contrary to 
the opinion expressed by Mr. A. R. Wallace, it had a very decided 
though small direct effect in causing divergence, an effect sufficient to 
produce species, though probably no differences of generic importance. 
