7 
Paper.— Rev. C. R. N. Barrows read a paper on Geometra papilionaria 
(to be printed in Ent. Rec.) of which the following is an abstract. He 
said that the insect had special claims for our attention: (1) because of 
its size and beauty, (2) because there was no possible doubt as to the 
nomenclature to be employed as Linne had named the species and 
everyone had followed him. Concerning its Geographical Distribution 
it was widely spread, but in the South of England it could not be 
considered common. Over the variation presented by the species, the 
author dwelt at considerable length. Apart from the type that Linne 
had described, five other more or less well marked forms had been 
detected. These were ab. prasinaria; ah. herbacearia: ah. now blue 
green ; ab. nov. with white mark in cell, and ab. now dull green with 
a single transverse line. The ovum took from five to nine, and even 
to sixteen, days to hatch, and the young larva fed slowly till the leaves 
began to fall. The young larva required as food, the buds of birch 
and not the young leaves. The moth usually hatched from the pupa 
between June 6th and July 5th, and was well known to be attracted 
to light, and late in the evening to sugar. It was distributed over 
Central and Northern Europe, Northern Asia Minor, The Atlas 
Mountains, Siberia, and had been taken at Vladivostock and even in 
Japan. In Britian it was found at altitudes ranging from sea level to 
1000ft. It had never been recorded from the Isle of Man. Details 
were given of the structure of the larva in its different stages, and the 
presence of special hairs as found in other “Emerald” species was 
fully discussed, relative to the classificatory position of G. papilionaria. 
It was stated that Linne’s type of the species was by far the commonest 
form, i.e., the form without the basal line on the forewing and with 
the other two well defined. At the close of the paper Mr. A. W. Mera 
proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Burrows, Mr. Nicholson seconded, and 
said that every gradation between the extremes in spotted species 
occurred, and it was exceedingly difficult to decide upon any particular 
number of different forms. Alder, he thought, was a very common 
foodplant and was always a very good substitute for birch. Mr. A. 
Bacot thought that the ancestor of Phorodesma smaraydaria, Phorodesma 
pustulata, and Geometra papilionaria must have been a species with a 
clothed larva. Several members gave their experiences with this species 
and its time of flight, and most were agreed that the natural flight was 
late in the evening. The vote of thanks was then put and carried. 
Feb. 16th, 1904.— Preserved larvae.— Mr. C. P. Pickett, a box of 
preserved Arctiid larvae. 
Drepana lacertinaria.— Mr. W. J. Kaye, a short but very variable 
series of Drepana lacertinaria from several localities. Attention was 
drawn to a large unicolorous, pale brown form. 
Spanish Arctiids.— Dr. T. A. Chapman, some Arctiids from Spain, 
including Arctia fasciata from Moncayo, Arctia. latreillei, and (Enoyyna 
zoraida. 
Pachys betularia ab. doubledayaria intermediates.— Mr. R. G. 
Benton, some intermediates between type Pachys betularia and ab. 
doubledayaria : also a specimen of Opistkoyraptis luteolata, with hardly 
a trace of the transverse markings. 
Syntomis phegea.— Mr. A. W. Mera, some SyntornU pheyea, and 
made some remarks on their Zygtenid appearance. 
