( xxvii ) 



invisibility was desired, but the heliotropic attitude with tail 

 to the sun, was familiar to observers of Vanessas and other 

 Nymphalids — and some other butterflies of the European 

 fauna. During their active period, when, settling, usually on 

 the ground, they assumed that orientation, and spread their 

 wings flat on the ground with the head a little raised, making 

 the greatest display of their coloui's, but chiefly appearing to 

 desire to secure as vertical a sun as circumstances allowed ; this 

 might be different in the tropics. He wished to ask how and 

 how far these two phases of a similar orientation were related. 



Pi'ofessor E. B. Poulton congratulated the author on the 

 many interesting facts and observations contained in his 

 memoir. There was neither time nor opportunity to consider 

 these in detail; but the speaker felt that he must express his 

 deep interest in the principle suggested by Dr. Longstaff at 

 the conclusion of his account : — that in the tropics there were 

 many hours of daylight during which insects were at I'est 

 and their enemies active. It was clearly a principle of the 

 utmost importance, which must be seriously taken into 

 account in observing and recording bionomic data.* 



Upon Dr. Chapman's suggestion that butterflies assume a 



* Since the meeting of the Society on March 7, I have remembered the 

 very interesting observations jjublished in 1900 by Mr. N, Annandale, of 

 the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The author, observing the habits of cer- 

 tain Phasmidie and of a beetle larva, is led to conclusions very similar to 

 those reached by Dr. Longstaff from the habits of Lepidoptera. (" Notes 

 on the Habits of Malayan I'hasmidic, and of a Flower-like Beetle larva," by 

 Nelson Annandale, B.A. , Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinb. 1900, No. xxix, 

 pp. 439-444.) In this communication Mr. Annandale describes a dull- 

 red species of Phasmid, Lonchodes, sp., nearly four inches long, which, 

 in the full blaze of the mid-day sun, is freely exposed on " tlie upper sur- 

 face of certain broad leaves such as abound in neglected hill clearings." 

 Even from below "its shadow was perfectly visible through the translucent 

 tissues of the leaf." 



" I was quite unable to discover what became of them at night, for I 

 never found them on the leaves either late in the afternoon or eaily in the 

 morning. Most probably they remained concealed among the undergrowth 

 except during the heat of the daj'. 



" The Phasmid . . . is only conspicuous at certain times of day, when 



the sun is at its hottest and brightest At mid-day, the mammals, 



birds and amphibians of the jungle are at rest. They are not asleep, but 

 they do not sear^ih actively for food, nor come out of tlie wood into the 



clearings Lizards, of course, are generally most active when the 



sun is hottest ; but in these hill-clearings reptiles of all sorts are rare. 

 .... I have a certain amount of negative evidence that the majority of 

 Malayan Phasmidfe are most active in the middle of the day, being 

 inclined to remain concealed in the early morning and late afternoon. 



