Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/463

Rh Mr. G.C. Champion exhibited a series of Spercheus emarginatus taken at West Ham, Essex.

Mr. John Spiller, who was present as a visitor, exhibited some seeds received from Mexico which had the peculiar property of jumping about, in consequence of their euclosing the larva? of a small moth. They con- tinued to exhibit their remarkable movements for a period of at least three months.

Mr. S. Stevens stated that he had possessed some of the "jumping seeds," and had bred the moths from the enclosed larvae, which had turned out to be a species of Tortrix, Carpocapsa saltitans (see also Trans. Ent. Soc, 2nd series, vol. v., p. 27).

The Secretary exhibited a photograph of Prodryas Persephone, Scudder, a fossil butterfly in a wonderfully perfect state of preservation, found in the tertiary formations of Colorado. The photograph had been forwarded to the Society by Mr. Scudder.

Mr. A. H. Swinton communicated a paper "On the Vocal Music and Wing-beating of Insects."

Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse read a paper entitled "Notice of a small Collection of Coleoptera from Jamaica, with Descriptions of New Species from the West Indies."

October 2, 1878.— Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., President, in the chair.

Mr. Thomas Nottidge, of Ashford, Kent, was ballotted for and elected a Member. Mr. J. Lawrence Hamilton, M.R.C.S., of 34, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, was ballotted for and elected a Subscriber.

Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited specimens of Hipparchia Semele from the New Forest, Lewes, the Rigi, and Russia, showing a tendency to vary in colour on the under side in accordance with the nature of the soil of the district in which the specimens had been taken.

Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited the eggs and young larva? of Ascalaphus longicornis, found by Mons. E.L. Ragonot in the Forest of Lardy, not far from Paris, apparently the northern limit of distribution of the species. The eggs were arranged, after the manner peculiar in the family, in two rows on a dried grass stem, to the number of forty-six or twenty-three in each row. He had some of the young larva? still living, but was uncertain as to whether he would be able to rear them.

Mr. M'Lachlan also exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Edwin Birchall, a much- worn example of Heliothis scutosa, which had been captured by Mr. W. H. Campbell, of Londonderry, in the north of Co. Donegal, Ireland, on the 19th August last. He alluded to the sporadic habits of this and allied species, and its rarity in the British Islands.