1002 rKOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD EXTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



situated near tlie equator (Mt. Kilimanjaro in East Africa, and the 

 Andes of South America) I have received species found at heights of 

 13,000 feet, and they probably attain 14,000 feet ; in the Himalayas 

 I anticipate they will be found u]y to 12,000 feet at least, but I have none 

 yet from anything like this. Coast sand-hills and saltmarshes, carrying 

 a i^eculiar vegetation, are usually very productive of interesting species, 

 Cjuite different from those of other regions ; these have not yet been 

 touched, apparently. 



The larvise of Bli'crolepidoplem are probably almost invariably edible 

 (not protected by distastefulness or irritating hairs, as many larger 

 Lepidojilera are), and when one considers the multitude of their enemies 

 in the active life of a tropical forest, ants (one species of ant alone, 

 introduced into the Hawaiian Islands, has exterminated there most 

 of the Microlepidoptera in those districts over which it has spread), 

 spiders, ichneumons, birds, lizards, and many other insect- eating 

 creatures, it seems extraordinary that so many species still maintain 

 their existence. Under this violent pressure it is certain that a variety 

 of ingenious expedients for concealment and protection will have been 

 evolved, offering a succession of interesting riddles to the acute collector. 

 Alexander the Great, putting hard questions to the Indian sages, inquired 

 which was the most' crafty of animals, and was answered " That which 

 has not yet been discovered." Many will be found to be internal feeders 

 in flower-heads, seed-vessels, ben-ies, shoots, stems, or roots ; others 

 feed underground amongst roots, and these are difficult to find or to 

 obtain uninjured, except in sand. Those which feed on dead leaves 

 or ground-refuse (often in portable cases of leaf-fragments) are also 

 difficult to observe, and have been much neglected. Some have adopted 

 the courageous but eft'ective method of sheltering within the nests of 

 termites, ants, or spiders, apparentlj^ sometimes tolerated by the owners 

 as useful scavengers, and protected by them against external enemies, 

 securing at the same time a supply of food and defence against drought 

 or rain. An Australian species {Cyclotorna) is at first parasitic on certain 

 Homoftera (Jassidcp), to whose bodies the larva adheres ; it then goes 

 through a kind of pupal stage in a cocoon, and emerges as a larva of 

 quite dift'erent form and colouring, which lives in ants' nests, feeding 

 on the ant-larva». and ingratiating itself with the ants by excreting 

 an agreeable liquor for their consumption. Some very interesting 

 forms feed on scale-insects {Coccidcc), sheltering themselves amongst 

 the fragments of their victims. Probably many curious kinds of parasi- 

 tism remain to be discovered. 



I will now review the families in order, indicating how our know-, 

 ledge of them stands at present. 



