198 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Varia from Pctites Nouvelles. -The collections of Coleoptera (Longi- 

 corns and Anthribidae) of the learned author of Geneva, Prof. Lacordaire. 

 now form a part of the Museum at Brussels. — The numerous collection of 

 Curculionidoe of M. A. Deyrolle is now the property of the Philadelphia 

 Museum. However, the types of Lacordaire, A. Deyrolle, M. Jekel, etc., 

 which are deposited in this collection, as well as of the numerous series of 

 species which compose it, will be placed by M. Agassiz at the disposition 

 of Entomologists in cases of serious need. [Query by Ed. C. E. : — Is 

 this collection in the Museum of Comp. Zool. at Cambridge, Mass., or in 

 that of one of the Societies at Philadelphia? Perhaps some American 

 Entomologist can inform us.] — During the siege of Paris, Dr. Boisduval, 

 although much engaged every day in attending .the sick and wounded, 

 nevertheless continued his work upon the Sphinges : he laboured ardently 

 upon it during the whole continuance of the siege, in spite of the shells 

 and projectiles which exploded all round his house, and fell upon the 

 Yal-de-grace and the Pantheon, the tremendous concussion of which 

 shattered the glass of his cabinets ! Tin's work, now completed, will fill 

 up one of the gaps in the Suites a Buffon, and will form the fourth volume 

 of the Natural History of Lepidoptera. It will include the Sphinges. 

 Castnidse and Agaristida^, and will be published on the same plan as the 

 first volume, which treats of Papilios, Pierides, etc. The learned doctor 

 intends to continue his work till he completes the remaining volumes. 



Entomology. — Mr. Roland Trimen, F.L.S., F.Z.S., read a note on a 

 curious South African grasshopper, Traehypetra bi/fo, White, which mimics 

 with much precision the appearance of the stones among which it lives. 



He commenced by observing that some tendency existed to separate 

 too widely those cases of mimicry where one animal imitated another from 

 those in which an animal closely resembled either some part of a plant or 

 some inorganic object; and expressed the opinion that these two sets of 

 cases were wholly one in kind, the evident object in all being the protec- 

 tion of the imitator. 



1 Ascribing a visit paid to the vicinity of Grahamstown in search of this 

 insect, he observed that it was a work of considerable difficulty to distin- 

 guish the grasshoppers from the stones, and he was engaged for half an 

 hour in careful search over a known station of the species before discover- 

 ing an example. He noted the further most interesting fact, that, in certain 

 spots (often only a few square yards in extent) where the stones lying on 

 the ground were darker, lighter, or more mottled than those generally pre- 

 valent, the Traehypetra found among such stones varied similarly from the 

 ordinary dull ferruginous-brown colouring in imitation of them. 



