36 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
small band of members may be soon so increased and enlarged, that no future
President will feel called upon to reecho these desultory remarks.
"It is my duty to nominate four Vice-Presidents to act during my term of
office. I have great pleasure in naming Mr. E. N. Buxton, J.P., Mr. Walter
Crouch, F.Z.S, Mr. II. Liver, F.L.S., F.S.A., and the Right Hon. Lord
Rayleigh, F.R.S."
The following were elected members of the Club :—Colonel Brydges Branfield,
J.P., and Mr. Charles T. Rose.
The President stated that the Financial Statement had been prepared, but the
Auditors regretted that they had not quite completed the audit, and, therefore,
they asked that the matter might stand over until next meeting. He (the
President) was happy to say that the Club had in hand funds far in excess of all
liabilities, not including in the estimate the very considerable sum due in the form
of subscriptions unpaid for last year, etc.
Mr. W. White exhibited a series of the preserved caterpillars and perfect moths
of the genus Acronycta, for the purpose of illustrating some remarks on the dis-
similarity of the larvae and close resemblance of the moths in a group of insects
which were commonly considered in entomological books as nearly allied, and
indeed congeneric. He quite agreed with the recent suggestions that the different
species of the old genus Acronycta should be separated in accordance with their
natural relations. Mr. White suggested to the entomological members of the Club
that much useful work could be done in watching and recording the phases in the
early stages and during subsequent developments of such groups of caterpillars.
He would be most happy to co-operate with anyone willing to take up such
subjects. It was by the study of the very young forms of lepidopterous larvae
that correct and natural views of the relationship of different groups would
probably be obtained—the affinities of moths were often much obscured in the
imago stages, and, vice versa, apparently closely allied caterpillars frequently
produced moths very varied in their superficial characters.
The President thanked Mr. White for bringing this interesting subject before
the Club, and he trusted that members would follow Mr White's suggestions, and
take up such investigations as those alluded to, which would add a new charm to
the pursuit of entomology. The heterogeneous group Acronycta was undoubtedly
well worthy of study. Mr. A. G. Butler, in a paper read before the Entomological
Society in 1879 [see Trans. Ent. Soc, 1879, page 313], had discussed the natural
affinities of the insects, and, mainly from an examination of the larval stages,
had proposed to separate the British species of the old "genus" Acronycta into no
less than eight genera, distributed among the Families Arctiidae, Liparidae, Noto-
dontidae, and the Tribe Noctuites.1
Mr. Fitch read the following extract from an account of the new Barking and
Pitsea Extension of the Tilbury Railway given in the "Essex Weekly News" for
February 24th, 1888. It was given under the heading of "Archaeological Dis-
coveries," and although Mr. Fitch had no desire to endorse the "newspaper
science" of the writer, he thought that the "find" was perhaps worth recording,
and someone might be able to tell them more about it :—
"Speaking of the land reminds us that some interesting archaeological specimens
were found in the cuttings near Laindon Hills in the shape of portions of petrified
1 Those who may wish to understand and appreciate the grounds of Mr. Butler's wholesale
disintegration of Acronycta should study Lord Walsingham's very complete collection of the
larvae of the British species now in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington.—Ed.