]^g2 (January, 1867. 
Mr. Janson exhibited a collection of Coleoptera sent from Rio Janeiro by 
Mr. Hume. 
Mr. Duer exhibited a pupa of Vanessa urticm with curious filiform appendages 
projecting from the wing-cases. 
Dr, Sharp exhibited a Stenus now to Britain, S. major, of Mulsant, found at 
Southend. 
Prof. Westwood exliibited a drawing of the larva of a species of Tropcca, and 
read a description of its habits, as communicated by Mr. Holdsworth, of Shanghai. 
He also exhibited a number of Hypogymna dispar, mostly bred by Mr. Briggs, of 
Oxford, who had experimented upon the species with a view to test the power of the 
food-plant in producing variation in the imago. Some he had fed on elm, others on 
hawthorn ; those fed entirely upon hawthorn were very small. Mr. McLachlan 
remarked that this insect was scarcely a fair subject for expei'iment, as, in this 
country, it was in a semi-domesticated condition. 
Mr. Belt, of Maranham (who was present as a visitor), related that having 
found the nest of an insectivorous bird in a hole in a tree in Maranham, he watched 
the birds with a view of ascertaining what description of insects they brought to 
their young j and he found that Mr. Bates' supposition that the Heliconidce were 
distasteful to birds (he being at the time unaware of Mr. Bates' remarks) was 
perfectly correct, for on no occasion was one of these butterflies brought to the nest. 
Mr. Stainton said that, many years since, he was in the habit of taking large 
numbers of Lepidoptera at light ; these he killed by subjecting them to the fumes 
of sulphur, examining them the next morning. The greater number consisted of 
Agrotis exclainaUonis, and these were thrown out to the poultry. On one occasion 
an example of Spilosoma menthrastri was among the number ; and he remarked 
that his turkey-poults greedily ate the AgroUdce, but each in its turn picked up the 
Spilosoma, and rejected it as distasteful, — thus proving that there might be an 
object in the mimicry of Leptalis and Heliconia. 
Dr. Sharp replied to Mr. Wallace's letter in the last number of the "Athenaeum," 
concerning his objections to Mr. Wallace's theory of the cause of mimicry. Among 
other arguments, he said that the fact of a bird not catching a Leptalis because it 
was so like a Heliconia, supposed a want of perception on its part. Mr. Wallace 
said that it had been proved (even in the case of the condor) that birds seek their 
prey by sight, and not by smell, and it was not to be supposed that a bird would 
catch a thousand distasteful Heliconias on the chance of obtaining a single Leptalis, 
such being the relative abundance of the insects. 
Prof. Westwood adhered to his previously expressed conviction, that mimicry 
was not the result of natural selection, and announced that at the next meeting he 
would produce examples of close mimicry in insects inhabiting very different 
regions, in which case it could not bo for preservation in consequence of the species 
mimicked being distasteful. 
The President made a few remarks on the whole subject. 
Mr. McLachlan read descriptions of a new genus of Hemerobidm (Rapisma, type 
Hemerobius viridipennis, Walker), and of Ferlidce {Stenoperla, type Oliloroperla 
prasina, Newman). 
