1909 1 



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I maj say that I have examined a much smaller amount of material than Bateson 

 did, and did so with less care and detail. 1 looked over possibly 400 or 500 speci- 

 mens, and witii some cai'e perhaps 100, but brought home only about five dozen. 

 Nevertheless, I feel sure that the species at Amelie-les-Bains has a less range of 

 ordinary variation than the race examined by Bateson, and that for practical purposes 

 it has only one variation, viz., a dimorphism of the (J , a great majority being red, a 

 few grey like the ? ? . It is, of course, probable that all the forpis noted by Bateson 

 might be found at Amelie as rare abei-rations. Bateson gives 19'6 per cent, of ? 

 beetles as red, one fifth ; now among several hundred ? ? I did not see one red one. 

 Making every possible allowance for carelessness and crudeness on my part will not 

 bridge over this difference. 



As to ground-colour, thei'e were only two tints ; a hardly-greenish ochreous 

 (like Bateson's figures 4, 5, 23, 25)— to this belonged all the ? ? , and 20 to 25 per 

 cent, of the J ^ , and a red colour, very uniform, and very like that of Coccinella 

 l-punctata, to which 75 or 80 per cent, of the $ <? belonged. This red tint was the 

 same in all specimens, not in three or four diflercnt tints as described by Bateson, 

 noted in sufBcient numbers to have attracted my attention if they existed in equal 

 force at Amelie. 



The colouring of the majority of the $ $ was like Bateson's fig. 7, the spotting 

 rarely like this, nearer to that in fig. 2 in most cases. What struck me as showing 

 the mimetic aspiration towards the Coccinella was the ochreous mark on the front 

 angle of the thorax. These red beetles had a black thorax, with this pale angle 

 rarely far in extent from Bateson's figures 2 and 7, and of exactly the tint of a 

 similar patch in the ladybird. In the ochreous i $ this ochreous patch on the 

 thorax was usually more extended, as in the V ? . The spots of the red $ $ 

 varied a good deal in number, but I do not remember seeing a striped $, nor is 

 there one among forty I brought home. I think they are equally scarce among the 

 5j? $ , but though I saw more of them than of the $ $ \ looked less closely at them. 



Bearing on the reality of the mimicry of C l-punctata, a fact of primary 

 importance would seem to be, that the correlation of the black thorax is with red 

 elytra and not with increased black on the elytra. Those with most black on the 

 elytra are usually those with ochreous ground-colour and less black on the thorax. 

 Further, that no portion of the thorax ever shows any red is important. 



The conclusion I arrived at was that the $ ? managed to hide fairly well by 

 moving little, and by getting into angles and beneath tliorns (the Calycotome is an 

 uncomfortable bush to meddle with). That the $ $ being more active, and when 

 paired unable to hide in a hollow, obtained protection by resembling the Coccinella. 

 The ochreous i S may mark descent from a race in which there is no sexual dimor- 

 phism, at any rate they show the sexual dimorphism is not fully established, but 

 that a proportion of J <? follow the ? colouring. — T. A. Chapman, M.D., Betula, 

 Reigate : June, 1909. 



Capture of Tropideres sepicola, F., in Hampshire. — I am glad to be able to record 



the fourth British specimen of this rarity. It occurred to me whilst sweeping under 



beech trees at Harewood Forest, Hants, on July 4th last. The other recorded 



localities are Buddon Wood (Ent. Ann., 1857, p. 84.), Colchester, on hazel (Ent. Mo. 



Mag,, 1905, p. 262), and New Forest (Ent. Rec, xi, p. 340).— J. R. le B. Tomlin, 



"Stoneley," Reading : July 13th, 1909. 



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