1903.] H. Beveridge — Jesuit Mission to Akbar. 123 



the family Cossida3 which is to be found in Calcutta. Also coloured 

 drawings of the larva, pupa, and moth, and a piece of the stem of Cassia 

 nodosa, Ham., showing' on the inside the tunnels made in the wood by 

 the larva and on the outside empty pupal cases, from which the moths 

 had escaped, protruding from holes in the bark. 



Mr. Stebbing pointed out that the moths exhibited could be easily 

 distinguished from a closely related species D. strix by the fact that the 

 latter has a black thorax instead of the snowy white one present in the 

 moths exhibited. The curious point about the moths exhibited was to 

 be found in the relative size of the <? and 9 . Hampson in the Fauna 

 gives the spread of wings of the 9 moth as considerably in excess of 

 that of the male, his measurements being & 98-128, 9 180 millims: in 

 the specimens bred out in Calcutta, none of the 32 moths reached these 

 sizes, whilst the smallest <? measured had a wing expanse of but 

 70 millim, that of the smallest 9 being 77 millim. It is believed that 

 the larva depicted in the coloured drawings is shown to-night for the 

 first time, as no previous record of its ever having been taken or described 

 was discoverable. It will be noted that its colouring is vivid, which is 

 often the case with wood boring moth larva?, but that it is practically hair- 

 less. The larva is only about half-grown and is shown enlarged in the 

 drawing. The pupa, also depicted here for the first time, is also rather 

 remarkably coloured for a moth pupa. The drawing also shows a section 

 through a branch in which is depicted the tunnels made by the larva and 

 the bent position of the pupa at the time the moth escapes from it. 



The section of the stem shows the large tunnels made in the 

 wood of the tree by the caterpillar whilst feeding in the trunk, and also 

 numerous empty pupa cases protruding from the bark. 



It will be unnecessary to comment upon them further at present 

 since they are fully described and explained in a paper to be read later 

 on at the present meeting. 



The following papers were read : — 

 1. On General Maclagan's paper about the Jesuit Mission to Akbar. — 

 By H. Beveridge, I.C.S., (retired). 



(Abstract.) 



This paper is a supplement to an article by General Maclagan on 

 the three Jesuit Missions to Akbar's court. The author first discusses the 

 references to Akbar's religious reforms found in the Akbarnamah, and 

 shows that the date therein given for the visit of Rodolfo Aquaviva, the 

 first Portuguese missionary, must be erroneous. He then refers to 

 another passage in the same work, where it is stated that in 1578 A.D, 



