178 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



(Papilionidre) first came under notice, three species of which are 

 worthy of the attention of those who possess orangeries, seeing 

 that they support themselves in the caterpillar stage upon the 

 foliage of the orange tree. All the species of this family, however, 

 must not be regarded as pests, since some forms have a partiality 

 for the mistletoe, whilst others feed upon the native cherry, caper 

 tree, &c. Amongst the "whites" the Imperial (Delias harpalyce) 

 had a chief place, full details being given of its habits and powers 

 of flight. In the second family, the wonderful migratory powers of 

 the Wanderer (Danaus erippus) from its native haunts in South 

 America to our own shores were fully described. The advance 

 guard, travelling eastwards from America, reached England in 

 1876, whilst ten years later captures were made in Spain and 

 Portugal. The westward march, by way of the islands in the 

 Pacific, can be clearly traced, Queensland being reached in 1890, 

 and Melbourne two years later. It can with a fair amount of 

 confidence be predicted that the pioneers of these eastern and 

 western contingents will, ere long, meet each other face to face, 

 and then will come the tug of war. The history of the march of 

 this form is particularly interesting to the student of the distribution 

 of animal life over the surface of the globe, showing the ways and 

 means by which a local form may become cosmopolitan within a 

 comparatively short space of time. Those lively little brown ■ 

 butterflies, so familiar to those who have paid a visit to the ranges 

 near Melbourne, were accorded an enthusiastic notice, one genus 

 (Xenica) being strictly Australian. Perhaps the most striking 

 feature about the paper was its very full descriptions of the life- 

 history of many forms previously undescribed. To the young 

 naturalist the collection of specimens undoubtedly gives a great 

 deal of pleasure, but the authors clearly proved that the chief place 

 of value must be given to the study of the life-history of these 

 forms. For in some cases, as cited above, these interesting and 

 beautiful forms prove themselves veritable pests ; a knowledge, 

 therefore, of their food plants, would often locate them in one or 

 other stage of their existence, and so enable, if necessary, measures 

 to be taken for their destruction. No less than 31 species were 

 mentioned, and every one of them was fully illustrated by means 

 of a series of coloured lantern slides prepared by Mr. Anderson 

 and exhibited by Mr. J. Searle. 



EXHIBITION OF SPECIMENS. 



The meeting closed with the usual exhibition of specimens, of 

 which the following is a list : — By Messrs. E. Anderson and F. 

 Spry. — Specimens of P. kershawi with dark spots, also typical 

 form; X. achanta, with abnormal ocellus on right anterior wing; 

 X. kluggii, female type, also var. gemini ; also " Victorian 

 Butterflies," vol. i. (by Messrs. Anderson and Spry). By Mr. 



