8 
Conversazione. — Mr. Prout reminded all members of the forth¬ 
coming conversazione and asked that all might contribute something. 
Discussion on the Micro-lepidoptera of the London District.— 
Mr. Prout called on Mr. Bate to open the discussion and to make some 
remarks on his exhibit of “ Micros.” Mr. Bate on rising said the 
first thing to be settled was — -where do “ Macros ” end and “ Micros ” 
begin ? Many writers had made the division above the Pyrales, that 
family heading the “ Micros ” so called. Mr. Bate went on to 
endeavour to account for the general neglect at the hands of most 
lepidopterists of these smaller insects. The pinning was granted to 
be a difficulty that was very real. From their less conspicuousness, 
some Micros considered rare, were not infrequently turned up in numbers, 
which fact of itself should be a strong inducement to many to take up 
the study of this division. Micros were ubiquitous, in one hour the 
speaker mentioned having taken as many as 30 species from a fence in 
Dulwich. The setting was far easier than was commonly supposed, 
and the use of cotton was preferable to that of paper strips. The 
wings if quite fresh could often be blown into the correct position for 
display in the cabinet. A large number of “ Micros” were exhibited 
taken in the neighbourhood of Dulwich. The most interesting of 
these was Schoenobius forficellm. Mr. Prout said with regard to the divi¬ 
sion he thought we must begin the “Micro” division with the Pyrales. 
He remarked on the difficulty of dealing with the Tortrices from the fact 
that there were no structural characters to work with as in the Tineina. 
A curious fact was related as to how Mr. Taylor had on one occasion on 
Wimbledon Common had a “ Tortrix night” at sugar, i.e., one on which 
only species of that family appeared. It was remarkable that on the same 
night, that Halias quercana and H. bicolurana also appeared, and the 
natural question arose, Are these insects Tortrices ? Mr. Clark said the 
setting of Tineina was no more difficult than that of the larger groups. 
Mr. Dadd supported the experience of Mr. Taylor by saying that he 
had had a similar night at Winchmore Hill, when also H. prasinana 
turned up. Mr. Prout inquired if anyone knew how many of the 
Pterophorina were known to occur in the London district. He himself 
knew of Platyptilia yonodactyla, Pterophorm monodactylus, Aciptilia 
pentadactyla and Alucita liexadactyla. 
April 17th, 1900.— Spilosoma mendica.— Mr. Kaye exhibited a long 
series of Spilusoma mendica bred from ova, and read some detailed notes 
concerning the emergences and variation of the species. 
Pachys strataria.— Mr. Pickett, a living specimen of Pachys 
strataria from Chingford. 
Paper on Phorodesma smaragdaria. — At the commencement of the 
paper Mr. Burrows stated the enormous difficulty of finding the larva of 
this species. In England itwas only to be metwith on Artemisia viaritma. 
It was said to have been found by Koch on Achillea millefolia, and at the 
present time it is not contradicted but the statement required further con¬ 
firmation. Phorodesma pnstiilata was the only other species that had the 
curious habit of clothing itself with pieces of the food-plant. The use 
of this clothing in 1\ smaraydaria was now readily appreciable, it 
having been ascertained that these fragments shut up small quantities 
of air bubbles which, when the larva is subjected to floods, it makes use 
of to keep itself afloat on the water. The use of similar particles by 
