Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/58

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Nov. 7, 1877.—Prof. M.A., F.L.S., President, in the chair.

Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the donors.

Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited ten of the thirteen species of Lepidoptera collected by Captain Feilden and Mr. Hart in Grinnell Land, between the parallels of 78° and 83° N. lat., during the recent Arctic Expedition. They consisted of Colias Hecla, Lef., var.; Argynnis polaris, Bdv.; A. Chariclea, Schnd., many vars.; Chrysophanus phlæas, Linn., var.; Lycæna Aquilo, Bdv.; Dasychira Grœnlandica, Wocke; Mamestra? n.sp.; Plusia parilis, Hübn.; Psycophora Sabini, Curt.; and Scoparia, n.sp. He entered into some details respecting the insects generally of this high northern region and their habits, in anticipation of his extended Report to be read at the next meeting of the Linnean Society.

The Rev. A.E. Eaton remarked, with regard to Arctic insects, that he was disposed to consider that their transformations may sometimes be protracted through two or more summers. He adduced some apparently analogous phases in respect of plant life in Spitzbergen, where he had noticed, in June, plants seemingly upon the point of flowering, which had evidently remained in that state under the snow since the previous autumn. He said that in the islands referred to insects are not altogether indifferent to the approach of midnight, although the diurnal variation of light does not, in July, equal in intensity the difference between rural sunshine in this country and the light which passes for daylight in London when the sky is slightly overcast. He mentioned, in conclusion, that no Bombus has been hitherto found in Spitzbergen, and that Pedicularis hirsuta, appeared to be uuvisited by insects in that archipelago.

In reply to a question from the President as to the habits of the Arctic Culex, the Rev. A.E. Eaton remarked that when in Spitzbergen he had suffered much from the attacks of this insect, which had the habits of a true mosquito.

Mr. Meldola exhibited a five-winged specimen of Gonepteryx rhamni, caught near Brandon, Norfolk, in August, 1873, by Mr. John Woodgate. He also exhibited a gynandromorphic specimen of Pieris brassica, taken near Thame, Oxfordshire, by Mr. J.B. Watson, in August, 1877. In this last specimen the right fore and hind wings were female and the left male; the right antenna was also longer than the left.

Mr. H. Goss exhibited an hermaphrodite specimen of Gonepteryx rhamni, caught in Abbot's Wood, Sussex. He stated that he believed the specimen to be what Ochsenheimer called a "perfect hermaphrodite," the whole of the right side, both in characters and organs, being female, and the whole of the left side male. Mr. Goss remarked that from the recorded instances of hermaphroditism among the Lepidoptera it appeared that it was more