THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 135 



quite sure about the correctness of his observations. — A. Gr. Butler, in the 

 Entomologist Monthly Magazine. 



Mimicry. — At a recent meeting of the Entomological Society of London, 

 England, the President read the following extract from a letter, dated 

 " Sarawak, 17th April, 1870/' from Mr. A. Everett :— 



" My brother has found two remarkable spiders. One, which we had not 

 the means of keeping at the time, was lying with its legs pressed closely 

 beside its body, and was white streaked with black in irregular fashion : when 

 he called me to see it, I looked closely but in vain for it, the only thing 

 visible on the leaf being apparently a patch of bird's dung ; when it moved, 

 one saw immediately what it was. The other is similar in colour and beha- 

 viour, but seems to belong to a different genus, and the resemblance to the 

 droppings of a bird is not so completely deceptive. These would appear to 

 be instances of protective mimicry, and as such will perhaps be of interest to 

 you. I have another example, almost if not quite as evident : I had a cater- 

 pillar brought me, which, being mixed by my boy with some other things, I 

 took to be a bit of moss with two exquisite pinky-white seed-capsules ; but I 

 soon saw that it moved, and examining it more closely found out its real 

 character : it is covered with hair, with two little pink spots on the upper 

 surface, the general hue being more green : its motions are very slow, and 

 when eating, the head is withdrawn beneath a mobile fleshy hood, so that the 

 action of feeding does not produce any movement externally; the shape is 

 oval, and the edges are fringed with tufts of hair : it was found in the lime- 

 stone hills at Busan, the situation of all others where mosses are most plen- 

 tiful and delicate, and were they partially clothe most of the protruding 

 masses of rock : I placed it in spirit, but it has become shrunken and turned 

 to a dirty yellowish colour. Such things, however, require to be seen alive 

 in order to properly appreciate the close resemblance they bear to the par- 

 ticular objects they resemble/' 



Mr. De Grey mentioned that he had often been struck by the resemblance 

 of the caterpillar of Melitsea Cinxia to the flower of the plantain upon which 

 it feeds, whilst the pupa resembled the seed of the same plant. 



The Secretary exhibited a large woolly gall of the oak and a number of 

 living specimens of Cynips ramuli which had emerged therefrom. The gall 

 was found on the 24th of June, at Idsworth, near Horndean, by Sir. J. Clarke 

 Jervoise, Bart., who wrote respecting it as follows : — 



" My attention was yesterday called to what I thought was a ball of sheeps' 

 wool in a meadow where there were no sheep, and I placed it under a glass 

 clock-shade for security. This morning I found the clock had stopped, and 

 a quantity of flies were in the case and in the works of the clock. I never 

 happened to have seen a similar growth on the oak, a sprig of which is visible 



