760 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



I see that Bainbrigge Fletcher in his " South Indian Insects," page 402 

 says, " The moth sqeaks when disturbed," but says nothing about the 

 ability of the larva to do likewise. I do not know whether this is a common 

 accomplishment of moth larvae !■' 



W. B. BANNERMAN, 

 Surgeon-General, I, M.S. 

 Madras, 27th November 1917. 



No. XX.— A NEW SPECIES OF PRYTOPHTHORA PARASITIC 

 ON THE PARA RUBBER TREE. 



Recently a new species of Phytophthora has been found parasitic on 

 Hevea brasiliensis, the Para rubber tree. It occurs on the leaves, fruits and 

 shoots, causing the leaves to wilt and to fall, the fruits to rot, the branches 

 to die back partially and the tapped surface of the trunk to i-ot. It has 

 been named after Mr. A. H. Mead who first brought the disease to notice. 



Phytojihthora Meadii, nov. spec. Mycelio ramoso ex hyphis primo conti- 

 nuis tandem septatis, 3-6/x usque ad lOw crassis, inter et intracellularibus; 

 sporangiophoris raraosis 10-200/^ longis sed aliquauto brevibus ; sporangiis 

 inversipyriformibus sed variis, terminalibus vel lateralibus, in fructibus 

 33-67 X 14-28^, in aqua submersis 20-44x16-29//,; zoosporis ovatis vel 

 ellipsoideis, biciliatis, ciliis 16-26;u. longis, sporis globosis 7-10/x ; oogoniis 

 pyriformis, hyaliuis, levibus vel rugosis, in fructibus 20-48 X 20-40ya in 

 cultibus 22-49 x 20-45/it ; antheridiis persistentibus, hyalinis, rotundis vel 

 ovoideis, levibus 8-16 x 10-16yu, et oogonii basem et oogoniophori partem 

 circumclaudentibus ; oosporis sphfericis, in fructibus 18-28 X 18-26/,t in 

 cultibus 16-32 x 15-32^ membrana 2-4^ crassa, mellea aut fulva, levi. 



Hab. in foliis, fructibus, ramis cortice Heiea brasiliensis. 



Travancore, Cochin, Malabar, Indite orient. 



W. McRAE, • 



Government Mycologist. 

 CoiMBATORE, 2nd January 1918. 



No. XXI.— EXAMPLES OF MIMICRY IN SPIDERS. 

 ( With an illustration.) 



I am sending in a small phial by registered post two spiders illustrating 

 examples of mimicry. 



The one is a small spider imitating a black ant, but the second mimics 

 a piece of dead leaf hanging in the web. The sjjider is a bright yellow, 

 precisely the shade one often sees in dead leaves, with black markings and 

 the abdomen is attenuated to resemble the stalk. The resemblance, when 

 the spider is at rest, is so close that I was deceived even after handling the 

 creature. 1 saw the usual debris hanging in a web and alongside what 1 

 to 3k to be par'- of a dead leaf, with the sides partly eaten away or weather- 

 ed away and the a ex dried and broken off. Expecting to find a spider 

 among the debris 1 poked my finger into them when the '^ leaf " ran up the 

 web. I then thought from the '' leaf " being somewhat convex with the 

 concave side away from me, that the spider was inside the flexed leaf and I 

 could see its legs protruding beyond the leaf; so I seized what I took to be 

 the stalk to look for the spider and it was only by a close scrutiny that I 

 saw the "leaf" was actually "the spider, the whole spider and nothing but 

 the spider." 



