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XXIV. A note on the Cryptic Besemllance of two South , 



American Insects, the moth Brat^GTIta rusina, Bruce, ^ yox^d H > ^ 

 and the Locusticl, Plagioptera bicordata, Serv. 

 By Edward B. Poulton, D.Sc, M.A., F.RS., 

 Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of 

 Oxford and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. 



[Read October 17th, 1906.] 



Plate XXXIL 



By the kindness of my friend Mr. W. J. Kaye I have had 



the opportunity of making a detailed examination of the » 



deeply interesting moth exhibited by him on Oct. 17, 



1906 (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1906, p. Ixxviii). Mr. Kaye 



has also kindly permitted me to add the results of my 



study, in the form of the following note, to Plate XXXII 



of the Transactions, — the Plate illustrating his exhibit 



of Oct. 17 last. 



Before I had heard of Mr. W. B. Grove's suggestion that 

 leaves attacked by fungi are the models resembled by 

 Kalliriia (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1905, pp. xxxii, xxxiii), I 

 too should have thought that the transparent networks 

 of Dracenta represent " the work of some leaf-mining 

 insect." Mr. Grove's suofgestion however throws new 

 light on the problem, and I now think that the moth 

 bears a cryptic resemblance to a dead leaf partially 

 destroyed by fungi. Mr. Kaye also considers that this 

 interpretation is probably correct, and he points out that 



the position in which the moth was found is in favour 



of it. 



With Mr. Kaye's permission I have added to Plate 



XXXII, figures of the upper and under surface of the 



Locustid, Plagioptera bicordata, for comparison with the 



moth. 



It is interesting^ to observe that the effect of the ragged 



outline of the wings of Draeentu is intensified in precisely ■i' I^CtCd fjf^ 



the same manner as in G^njJta {Polygonia) c. album (Proc. 



Ent. Soc. Lond, 1903, pp. xxvi — xxviii). In both insects 



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



