6 
April 2nd, 1895.—Exhibits :—Mr. Battley: a sprig of azalea, taken 
from a plant in his conservatory; the bowers of this plant were 
normally of the ordinary large, dark red variety, but this year all were 
very small, and each flower had a sort of calyx just below it, of the 
same colour and texture as the flower; he could not assign any reason 
whatever for this extraordinary departure. Mr. Riches said that the 
flowers appeared to be identical with those of Azalea amoena. Mr. 
Stillwell: a specimen of Satyrus semele from Epping Forest, having only 
one ocellus on the underside of the fore-wings. Mr. Bate: a series of Cara- 
drina taraxaci from Honor Oak Park, the specimens being variable but 
mostly very dark. Mr. May: series of Hybernia marginaria from Cking- 
ford and Tooting Bee Common ; the latter were larger and better marked 
than the former. Mr. Bayne: two specimens of Agrotis obscura from 
Epping Forest, one of which was very obscurely marked ; also specimens of 
the second brood of Pachycnemia hippocastanaria from the New Forest. 
Mr. Sauze: males, females and workers of Formica nigra and repre¬ 
sentatives of other species of ants. Rev. C. R. N. Burrows sent for 
exhibition the royal cell of a termite from Natal, also a photograph of 
the queen and two slides of the workers, with the following notes there¬ 
upon :—“ The royal cell of the Natal termite is, as you will notice, much 
higher in the centre than at the sides. These sides are the galleries in 
which the workers move when they go to feed the queen, or to remove the 
ova. You will notice the passages in the sides,large enough for the workers. 
The queen is quite enclosed and never has a chance of walking out, but— 
poor thing—she rather resents the imprisonment, fancying, perhaps, that 
her figure is worth showing, and her legs are worn away with pawing the 
floor of the cell until mere stumps remain. When they first emerge, 
the females are winged, but they cast their wings and are at that time 
as active as the workers and have very decently formed legs. I re¬ 
member well the very curious swarming of the termites, the clouds of 
flying insects, and the ground littered with the detached wings. One 
corner of a field was, I remember, one day quite white with wings. 
The females fly for a while, then settle and deliberately bite or shake 
off their wings. '1 he sight is curious. All creation seems against the 
helpless creatures—birds, beasts, and insects too. Especially so are the 
other ants—black, red, etc. I saw several queer fights. Once a small 
ant got a female termite (winged) by one leg; up went Mrs. T. and 
with her went the ant; the flight was slow and low, so that I 
could watch the enemy swarm up her leg, mount on her back and snip 
off a wing, when.! I saw the poor things on the ground 
being tugged off to prison or to death in dozens, but the first thing, 
always, was to remove the wings. I thought that I was, perhaps, 
occasionally misled, and that really in some cases it might be the male lead¬ 
ing off a bride. But, as a rule, there was no room for mistake, as the captive 
was carried down into the den of healthy and active ants, who used 
often to come in for tit-bits—such as new-born rats, etc.—from my 
bounty.” Mr. Tutt read a paper on “ The development of sex in 
social insects ” (vide, Ent. Becord, vol. vi., p. 193). 
