1802.] -j -[J 



forms followed, in wliicli Cation Fowler, Col. Swinhoe, and the Rev. F. D. Moriee 

 Joined. Mr. 0. E. Janson, a pair of Stephanocrates Doherti/i, .Tord., a Goliath beetle 

 discovered by the late W. Doherty in the highlands of British Ea*t Afriea. 

 Dr. T. A. Chapman, cocoons of a Limacodid moth from La Plata, with 

 empty pnpa-cases of a Dipterous parasite of the genus Si/stropus, obtained from 

 Herr Heyne, and to show the close resemblance there is between the two pupa- 

 cases, he had placed with them some genuine Limacodid cases, with their cocoons. 

 The resemblance is, however, not merely of appearance, but functional also. 

 The moth-pupa, i.e., the moth itself inside the pupa-ease, almost certainly by 

 inflating itself with air, to secure greater size and a stiffened epiderm as a basis of 

 muscular action, exerts an end-to-ond pressure within the cocoon, and so forces off 

 a lid. It is here that the beak or" cocoon-opener " with which the pupa is armed is 

 useful as determining that the fracture shall be at the right end, making the 

 lid split off here, under much less pressure than would be efficient without it, and 

 leaving no chance for fracture to occur at the wrong end where pressure is equally 

 distributed. The Si/stropim breaks off a similar lid, no doubt by similar end-to-end 

 pressure to that exerted by the moth, Diptera having highly developed the habit of 

 inflating themselves with air, at emergence from the pupa. This pupa also has a 

 beak very like that of the Limacodid, but even stronger and sharper. Dr. Chapman 

 also exhibited a Bombyliid pupa -ease from West Afriea, very like that of some 

 British forms, the head-armature of which is not a "cocoon-opener," but an ex- 

 cavating or navvying machine, for use in burrowing a way out of loose soil, such as 

 solitary bees' nests are found in. The pupa of an African species of practically the 

 same habits as this South American one, is described and figured in Professor West - 

 wood's monograph of the genus Stfstropus in our Transactions for 187fi. Mr. J. E. 

 Collin, in further illustration of Dr. Chapman's remarks, exhibited specimens of: 

 (n) Systropitx, sp. ? from Buenos Ayres, parasitic on a Bombycid Lepidopteron 

 (JAmacodps ?). This he said was possibly the same as Dr. Chapman would have 

 reared from his cocoons. The species was apparently undescribed, but most allied 

 to tf. brasiliensis, Meg. As Prof. Westwood noticed in 1876, the insect is very 

 lender to inhabit so stout a pupa-ease, (h) Syxtropus, sp. ? A large handsome un- 

 described species from Bigot's Collection. Professor Poulton introduced a paper by 

 Mr. Guy A. K.Marshall, entitled "Five Years ("1897-1001) observations and ex- 

 periments in the Bionomics of South African insects, dealing especially with warning 

 colours and mimicry, with Appendices, containing description of new species by 

 Col. C. T. Bingham and W. L. Distant." The paper was illustrated by many 

 photographs projected on the screen, showing groups of South African insects of 

 many orders, collected by Mr. Marshall, each with a common type of warning 

 coloration. Some of these groups included mimetic species of great interest. An 

 important section of the paper contained the description of a long series of careful 

 experiments conducted upon the chief Vertebrate and Invertebrate insect enemies of 

 South Africa. The number of new facts is so large, the experiments so numerous 

 and complete, the range of observation extended over so many orders, in addition to 

 the much studied Lepidoptera, that this memoir places South Afriea in the first 

 rank as the country from which the chief evidence in support of existing theories of 

 mimicry, warning colours, etc. has been supplied. Mr. Malcolm Burr, B. A., F.L.S., 



