Abstract
LONDON. EntQmologiqal. Society, October 7.—Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S.,. president, in the chair.—Mr. G. C. Champion exhibited on behalf of Prof. Hudson Beare some specimens of a,Ptinus new to the British list, captured in a granary at Strood on May 11, 1901.—Mr. C. O. Waterhouso exhibited on behalf of Mr. Charles Pool specimens of a beetle of the genus Niphus, clos.ely resembling N., crenatvs, but with distinct shoulders, and more parallel elytra which are less strongly striated.. They were found in large numbers in a corn chandler's at Edmonton.-Mr. H. St.- J. Donisthorpe exhibited specimens of Aphanisticus emarginatus from the Isle of Wight, a beetle new to the British list, and a Scymnus, new to science, from the* same locality;, o-Mr, M. Burr exhibited a living adult male earwig, Labi-dura riparia, Pall., captured near Boscombe at the end of August. He said that the very noticeable pale coloration becomes darker after death, sometimes nearly black, which might account for some of the numerous '' coiour-varieties."-Dr. Norman Joy exhibited a specimen of Argynnis selene, taken last year in Berkshire, showing a remarkable tendency to melanism, and rare Coleoptera taken in the same county during, 1903.-Sir George Hampson exhibited a collection of Norwegian butterflies made by him on the Dorsefjeld, on the Alten fiord, .'at Bossekop, and other localities this year, including series of Colias hecla, Lef., Chrysophanus hippothoe, and yar. stieberi, Gerh., CEneis norna, Thnb., Melitaea, var. Norvegica, Auriv., the Norwegian form of M. aurelia, Argynnis freiga, and A. frigga, a Labrador, Arctic, and North American species, now found further south, at Kongsvold, for the first time.-Mr. A. H. Jones exhibited examples of Erebia christi, taken this summer in the Laquinthal, and of the species of Erebia, to which it is allied; a local form of Satyrus actaea, var. cordula, from Sierre; and a short series of Chrysophanus dorilis (type) and C. var. subalpina from the . Laquinthal, with P. hippothoe, var. eurybia, showing the strong resemblance on the upper surface which the Q of this latter species bears to the 9 subalpina.-Mr. A. J. Chitty exhibited specimens of Procto trupid, which he said approached Poncra constricta in appearance, but might be an Iso-brachium. If so, it was new to the British list.-Mr. H. Willoughby Ellis exhibited Criocephalus polonicus, Motsch, a longicorn beetle new to Great Britain, from the New Forest, and also specimens of all stages, from the egg to the imago, to illustrate the life-history of the species. He also exhibited specimens of Asemum striatum, L., with larva and pupa, accounted heretofore rare in the New Forest, but this, year occurring in abundance.-Mr. Ambrose Quail exhibited cases showing the life-history of some Australian Hepialidse.-Dr. D. Sharp, F.R.S., exhibited specimens illustrative of the egg-cases and life-histories of eight species of South African Cassididas, as described in a paper by Mr. F. Muir and himself.-Mr. W. L. Distant also showed the pupa cases of some African species of Aspidomorpha, with the cast heads of the larvae. -Mr. Roland Trimen, F.R.S., exhibited some cases of mimicry between butterflies inhabiting the Kavirondo-Nandi district of the Uganda British Protectorate, particularly “that in which Planema poggei, Dewitz, is imitated' by an apparent variety of Pseudacraea kiinouiii, Dewitz, and also by a. hitherto undescribed form of the plymorphic Q Papilio metope, Cram. He mentioned that both Planema poggei and Pseudacraea kiinouiii were described and figured by Dewitz in 1879 from single specimens taken by Dr. Pogge in Angola, and added the interesting fact that the only other example of the undescribed mimicking form of the 9 Papilio merope known to him-in the Hope Department of the Oxford University Museum-is ticketed “Angola; Rogers, 1873."The president referred to the special interest attaching to an interpretation of this remarkable form of the female merope ¦ at the same time he pointed out that the iterpretation so convincingly illustrated that evening had been made out last spring by Mr. S. A. Neave, who exhibited this form of the female merope, together with Planema poggei as its model, at both soiries of the Royal Society in May and June, a time when Mr. Trimen's absence from England unfortunately prevented him from seeing them.-Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited Coenonympha oedipus, Satyrus dry as, and Heteropterus morpheus, taken last summer near Biarritz, and Erebia crias and E. stygne, from the Logrofio Sierra, Spain. These he suggested were probably examples of homceochromatism. Little attention has been directed to homceochromatism in European butterflies, and these were certainly not examples of the detailed mimetism_ we are now familiar with in Miillerian groups from the African and neotropical regions.-Dr. Chapman also exhibited living imagines of Crinopteryx familiella. These had just emerged at ReJgate, where they and their parents, de> scended from pupae brought from Cannes in March, -1901, had lived out of doors during their active existence, being brought into the house only during their pupal aestivation. This seemed noteworthy in' so ¦ southern (Mediterranean) a> species. The experiment seemed quite likely to continue successful for the next generation.-Mr. Ambrose Quail read papers en the ahtehnae of the Hepialidae and on Epalxiphora axenana, Theyr.-Mr. Gilbert J. Arrow read a> paper on the laparostict lamelicorn Coleoptera of Grenada and St. Vincent, West Indies.-Mr. T. H. Taylor communicated notes ort the habits of Ghironomus (orthocladius) sordidellus.-Mr. F. Du Cane Codman, F.R.S., communicated descriptions of some new species of Erycinidas.-Mr. W. L". Distant communicated additions to the rhynchotal fauna of Central America.-Dr. D. Sharp, F;R.S., read a paper on the egg-cases and early stages of some Cassididae. PARIS. “
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Societies and Academies . Nature 68, 615–616 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/068615a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/068615a0