290 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



habits, and those which simulate the leaves or twigs of trees 

 upon which they live, were eaten with avidity. 



Mr. Butler read some observations on a cognate subject, 

 but relating more especially to the consumption or rejection 

 of larvae by lizards, frogs and spiders ; both lizards and 

 frogs would eat hairy larvae ; and even the stings of bees had 

 no deterrent effect upon a lizard. 



Mr. Home said that in India lizards were almost omni- 

 vorous, and ate bees with avidity ; a friend of his. Colonel 

 Ramsay, had hives of Apis dorsata placed near some stone 

 walls or terraces, which were a favourite resort of lizards ; 

 they would come to the mouths of the hives, lie in wait for 

 the bees, and take them, sting and all. Larvae of all sorts, 

 smooth or hairy, dull or bright, were eaten by lizards ; but 

 scorpions were rejected ; bears, however, would eat scor- 

 pions, and he had seen beai's turn over stones in search of 

 scorpions, and eat them regardless of their stings. He had 

 noticed that a common Indian species of Carabus, and all 

 the blister-beetles, seemed to be free from attacks of any 

 animal. 



Dr. Wallace said that the larvae of Bombyx Cynthia, 

 which were both gaily coloured and covered with tubercles, 

 were eaten by cuckoos, robins and tomtits : the two latter 

 made holes in the skin and took out the inside, whilst the 

 cuckoos swallowed the larvae whole. 



Mr. Wallace was pleased to find that the observations 

 of Mr. Weir went so far to support the theory which, 

 reasoning entirely from the analogy of what had been ob- 

 served in the Heliconiidae, he had ventured to suggest in 

 answer to a question of Mr. Darwin's. He thought there 

 was now a solid foundation of fact for the hypothesis that the 

 bright colour of larvae was protective, and was (as it were) 

 a flag hung out to warn off their enemies. Doubtless every 

 detail either of form or colour had its object and bearing 

 upon the history of the creature. It was not necessary that 

 the law should be absolute or the rule universal ; he did not 

 expect to find, on the contrary he should have been sur- 

 prised if it had been found, that all brightly coloured larvae 

 were peculiarly protected, or that the bright colour of any 

 particular larva protected it from all enemies ; if it thereby 

 obtained protection from a single enemy, if it was left 



