1886. J 41 



so far as I had noticed, a jellowish-browii edging to all the wings, but now many of 

 them were almost sooty-black all over — head, abdomen, and wings, the former pale 

 border being indicated by being of a slightly browner shade than the rest of the wing, 

 though in some that was hardly noticeable. The females in the day time sit on the 

 elm trunks, where it requires close searching to detect them. A $ of the ordinary 

 type can be seen readily many yards from the tree on which it may be sitting ; but 

 the var. fascata assimilates so closely to the bark, that one I found at rest in the 

 ! afternoon, on taking ofE my eyes to get a box for it, I was some little time before I 

 could detect it again, though within a few inches and directly in front of it all the 

 while. In this plantation I think fully two-thirds of both $ and ? noticed were 

 fuscata. I have now a batch of full-fed larvfE from a very black $ I found paired 

 with as dark and unicolorous a (J as ever I found ; and another lot from several 

 females, but of which I do not know of what form the $ parents were, and await the 

 result with great interest as to what proportions of dark and ordinary forms emerge 

 from them. 



After such an experience I determined to carry my investigations a iittlo further, 

 and this time on Diurnea fagella. I am not so sure about this species as the other, 

 as formerly I was not at all interested in Micros ; I am, however, tolerably certain 

 that I used to see the ordinary pale grey form in fair proportion to the dark form on 

 the trees in our woods, and this opinion is fully borne out by Mr. S. L. Mosley of 

 this town (who also agrees with me about the progemmaria), with whom I had a 

 talk on the subject. On the morning of Easter Monday, April 27th, and after dark 

 on the following evening, I picked oiS 120 specimens of D. fagella, of which, probably, 

 50 were females, and out of the lot, two only, one of each sex, were of the pale type, 

 the almost black form being in very large proportion. — GrEO. T. Poeeitt, Hudders- 

 field : June lUh, 1886. 



Protective mimicry in a moth. — Walking up Camberwell Grove the other after- 

 noon, I suddenly became aware of a lovely and perfect specimen of Smerinihus ti/iiB 

 sitting on the trunk of one of the lime trees about five feet from the ground. Ifc 

 was, to mo, so conspicuous on the dark trunk, that I puzzled much over the fact that 

 it must have been there for some time, probably hours, and had evidently been over- 

 looked by all the passing boys, to whom it would surely be a prize, if only for the 

 pleasure of destroying it. At last, when looking about, I found out the reason. 



The limes just breaking out into abundance of foliage produce leaves from little 

 buds here and there on the trunks. These leaves nearly always appear in pairs and 

 point obliquely doioniuards, so that they form a most curious resemblance to the 

 wings of the moth, are placed at precisely the same angle, and when only half ex- 

 panded have the same straight costal edge and scalloped margin. 



To a casual glance the resemblance is most striking, and a casual glance is all 

 that is bestowed by the majority of passers on anything so unimportant as a tree or 

 its leaves. This instance of protective mimicry is quite new to me, and exceedingly 

 interesting. — C. G. Baeeett, Camberwell Grove, S.E. : May 18th, 1886. 



Tephrosia crepuscularia and biundularia. — A friend has just sent me specimens 

 : from Derbyshire of the dark grey variety of what I should have called biundularia 

 certainly, but they were taken on April 12th and 24th. They are beautiful dark 



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