6 THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



mechanical action of the hairs, is suggested by the following 

 incident I remember to have read in an entomological work, the 

 title of which does not occur to me at the present moment. 

 A traveller in some part of South America picked up a large hairy 

 caterpillar. In handling it he sustained something akin to an 

 electric shock. This was given with such power as to render his 

 arm useless for a time ! 



Other " big things " in the way of caterpillars with unpleasant 

 urticating properties are found in Brazil. The greatest efforts of 

 our stinging species are but puny, when compared with the very 

 disagreeable way these Brazilian larvae have of resenting any in- 

 terference with their liberty, as the following extract from 

 ' Pioneering in Brazil,' by Mr. T. P. Bigg- Wither, will show. 

 Writing of a tribe of phosphorescent hairy caterpillars, the author 

 says : — " The varieties of these caterpillars were legion. Their 

 bodies were protected by triple coats of mail, that is to say they 

 were covered with a hairy substance, which in some species took 

 the form of moss, and in others of groups of stag antlers. To 

 attempt to touch these creatures with the naked hand was 

 a scarcely less hazardous undertaking than plunging one's hand 

 into a live hornet's nest. Each hair, or point, has the power of 

 inflicting a sting as painful as that of a certain venomous species 

 of red ant very common in parts of the forest, so that, if by 

 chance, as not unfrequently befel us when working on the picada, 

 one of these caterpillars happens to drop off a tree on to the 

 hand, or, worse still, on to the nape of the neck, the pain is almost 

 unbearable, the spot on which the creature falls immediately 

 becoming inflamed, and afterwards swelling up to a great size." 



12, Abbey Gardens, London, N.W., December 9th, 1884. 



ORIENTAL ENTOMOLOGY. 

 By the Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D. 



The accompanying observations are founded principally on 

 the Appendices to my work, ' L'Orient,' March 1 — June 30, 

 1882, as well as those to ' Nine Hundred Miles up the Nile,' 

 November 3, 1883— February 9, 1884. 



Of all butterflies that I noticed during my two expeditions to 



