9 
dency to a change of habit like this would, I think, be accelerated in 
England by the mild winters that we usually experience, and which 
would tend to shorten the hybernating period of a species, especially 
with food so close at hand. Under these conditions, it is evident 
that if a flatter variety occurred with more powerful legs, it would 
have a good chance of obtaining food that was beyond the reach of 
its less specialised neighbours, and it is precisely these variations 
which are shown in the specimen exhibited, so that, in spite of the 
abnormal shape of the femora, I cannot think that it should be 
classed as a monstrosity, but rather as an important variation, which 
in time may become a permanent and distinct species. The great 
difficulty is, that at present the specimen stands quite alone, and all 
the other specimens I have seen, show no tendency to vary in any one 
of the points in which this specimen shows so striking a divergence 
from the type.” 
March 2nd, 1897.— European and American lepidoptera.— Mr. 
Dadd exhibited Nemeophila plantaginis ($ with red hind-wings); 
Zyyaena pilosellae , Z. trifolii , Z. filipendulae, from Saxony ; Anosia 
archippus and Limenitis disippns, to show mimicry; Ayrotis campestris, 
A. quculndentata, A. messoria, A. venerabilis, A. introferus, A. ay rest is, 
A. insignata, A. subgothica, A. clandestina, from Dakota, U.S.A. 
Ccenonympha tiphon var. inornata.— Dr. Buckell, exhibiting as a 
visitor, showed specimens of Coenonyinpha inornata, on which he read 
the following notes:—“ In the paper on Coenomjmpha tiphon, which I 
read here in Oct., 1895 (Ent. Esc., vol. vii., pp. 100-107), I alluded 
to the American butterfly, described by W. H. Edwards, under the 
name of C. inornata, which he and Scudder considered to be a distinct 
species, but which the late Jenner Weir looked upon only as a variety of 
C. tiphon. My paper was read by Mr. James Fletcher, of Ottawa, the 
entomologist to the Dominion of Canada, and he very kindly sent me 
the five specimens of what, as he writes, ‘ we here call C. inornata ,’ 
which had been taken in the North West during the summer of 1895, 
and which I exhibit this evening. In the right-hand column, I have 
placed some specimens of the Scotch form of C. tiphon var. laidion, 
and may just remind you that the characteristic mark of this form is 
the obsolescent condition of the ocellated spots on the underside of the 
hind-wing. Comparing the two insects, the American specimens 
have a brighter coloration on the upper surface, and the hind-wings 
are very little, if at all, darker than the fore-wings, whilst in the 
Scotch specimens they are distinctly darker. On the under surface of 
the fore-wings it is noticeable that the apical ocellated spot is much 
more developed in the American than in the Scotch specimens. The 
marked feature of the under surface of the hind-wings is the entire 
absence of ocellated spots in the four upper specimens ; on the lowest 
there is just a trace of one. In four of the Scotch specimens there is 
likewise an entire absence of ocellated spots. On the whole, I am 
disposed to adhere to the opinion, that I expressed provisionally in 
1895, that C. inornata is not sufficiently different from C. tiphon var. 
laidion to be worthy of a varietal name.” Heredity notes on Amphi- 
dasys strataria. —Mr. Bacot exhibited 122 specimens of Ampliidasys 
strataria, bred during 1896 from the ova of a $ and 2 of one of his 
’95 broods. He also exhibited the ’95 brood, together with its parents, 
