7 
from Hornsey Rise. Messrs. E. Heasler and W. I. Cox showed 
specimens of Dulwich insects to illustrate an amusing and instructive 
paper, read by Mr. D. C. Bate, on “ The Lepidoptera of Dulwich.” 
Mr. Tutt exhibited a specimen of Blaps mucronata, on behalf of 
Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, who had taken it in his cellar, and read the 
following notes from that gentleman :—Notes on Blaps mucronata.— 
“ I packed this beetle under the impression that it might be something 
new to science, but appear since to have identified it as Blaps 
mucronata, of which Mouftet in his Theatre of Insects writes as follows : 
— 1 It is of a pure black glistening colour, very slow paced, as no 
creature the like, the body so framed and ordered that you would 
swear it were winged, and had sheath wings; nevertheless none of 
them have any wings, no, not the male itself, among this sort of them, 
whatever Pliny dreameth to the contrary. It hath long, slender, thin 
shanks ; remains in dark cellars ; it creepeth very slowly, but at the 
least glimpse of light and whisper of talk she hides herself; a 
shame-faced creature, certainly, and most impatient of light, not so 
much for its ill-favouredness, but the guiltiness of its conscience in 
regard of the stink it leaves behind it, and of its ill-behaviour, for it 
frequents base places, and digs through other men’s walls, and doth 
not only annoy those that stand near it, but offends all the place 
thereabout with its filthy savour. The mouth of it is forked, the back 
covered (as it were) with a sheath-wing, so solitary a creature that you 
shall scarce find two of them together.’ It is rather remarkable that 
Mouftet, though he persistently calls the insect which he is describing 
a ‘ Blab,’ and is good enough to place it amongst the Moths, gives a 
really fair figure of the Blaps, and a very good description of tliG 
insect. Alluding to the then popular notion that the imperial purple 
dye (which was kept a profound secret by the few dyers who knew 
how to prepare it) was made from the Blaps, he proceeds as follows:— 
‘ These little creatures, though they are baleful to nature itself, to men 
and to bees, yet God hath endued them with sundry virtues, in which 
they exceed the Blattie Bizantine, for take off his shell or mail, which 
is thin between its head (which is called Paparer) and its neck, what 
doth the belly contain but the ornament to dye withal, and to 
delight the eyes with their colour. The Blaps is a certain cure for 
ear-ache if beaten up with old wine, honey, pomegranate-rind, 
unguentum syriacum, apple-juice, tar and onion.’ This delightful 
mixture is to be boiled in a pipkin and, when cold, to be poured into 
the ear.—(From Wood’s Inserts Abroad, pp. 179-180).” 
Mr. Bacot exhibited a large number of imagines of Psilura monaclta, 
to illustrate the following Notes on the breeding of Psilura monacha. 
—“ From moths bred in 1893 from New Forest larvae I obtained two 
batches of ova called respectively No. 1 and No. 2. No. 1 was laid 
by a dark ? (A unknown) and produced nearly equal numbers of light 
and dark forms. No. 2 (parents unknown) produced pale forms only. 
A number of these moths were paired, and I selected four batches of 
eggs to breed from in 1895 ; these I lettered I, E, B and A. I and 
E were inbred from No. 1 ; A was bred from No. 2 ; and B was 
from a cross between No. 1 and No. 2. My notes on the moths reared 
from these four batches of ova are as follows :— Brood I. (Parents : 
a dark and suffused 7 with a strong, but clearly marked $) 
