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XX. A perinanent record of British Motlis in their natural 

 attitudes of rest. By A. H. Hamm, Assistant in the 

 Hope Department of Zoology, Oxford University 

 Museum. Communicated by Professor E. B. 

 POULTON, D. Sc, F.R.S. 



[Read November 21,st, 1906.] 



Plate XXIX. 



Naturalists have often described the remarkable har- 

 mony between many of our common insects and their 

 environment. Indeed no one can have collected or 

 observed insects without noticing this for himself, par- 

 ticularly in the species which usually rest upon tree- 

 trunks, rocks and walls. 



Although the art of photography has recently made 

 such rapid strides and has been utilized so successfully to 

 demonstrate and record many of the processes and facts 

 of Nature, very little has been done, so far as I am aware, 

 to illustrate by its means the attitudes and resting habits 

 of our common insects. Now, however, by the develop- 

 ment and perfection of "half-tone" illustration, figures 

 can be multiplied to an indefinite extent easily, inexpen- 

 sively, and so far as the printing is concerned in a perma- 

 nent form. The paper it is to be feared is " another story," 

 and one which requires, but has not as yet received serious 

 consideration on behalf of posterity. The natural histories 

 of British insects of the immediate future will I believe 

 be largely illustrated in this way, and the present paper 

 is an attempt to demonstrate the feasibility and success 

 of the method. 



Any one unacquainted with living insects in their 

 natural surroundings entirely fails to appreciate and value 

 the various colours and patterns seen on glancing through 

 a collection of insects, more especially Lepidoptera. Even 

 less is he able to understand their meaning in the illustra- 

 tions of the mimerous works on the subject. It is not 

 too much to claim that the figures on Plate XXIX are 



TRANS. ENT.SOC.LOND. 1906.— PART IV. (jAN. 1907) 32 



