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in and out of the burrows during the hot sunshine ; also specimens of 

 Pachnobia alpina, male and female, bred by Mr. Clark, who found 

 the pupae under Vacciniuvi on the highest parts of the mountains above 

 Rannoch, N.B. 



Mr. Enock exhibited some remarkable varieties of British Lepidoptera, 

 recently described and figured elsewhere. 



Mr. Rutherford stated that he had been successful in rearing certain 

 larvse associated with the cocoons of a moth allied to Anajjhe panda, 

 exhibited at a previous meeting. They proved to be those of an ichneumon 

 ascertained by Mr. F. Smith to be Cryptus formosus, BruUe, parasitical 

 also on Anaphe reticulata. A number of specimens of the insect, both 

 preserved and alive, were exhibited. 



Mr. Rutherford also exhibited a series of colour-varieties of an African 

 butterfly, viz. Aterica Meleagris, Cram., as illustrative of the principle of 

 protective assimilation. He remarked that all the species belonging to the 

 genus Aterica were shade-living and extremely local in their habits, witli the 

 solitary exception of Meleagris, which he had never found in shady places, 

 but always in bright sunshine. He had never observed it settle on leaves, 

 but always on the ground, and with closed wings, the under side of which 

 have such a resemblance to the colour of the soil that he had always 

 experienced the greatest difficulty in detecting the butterfly when at rest. 

 That this was no mere chance i-esemblance was evident from the nature of 

 the illustrations exhibited. Thus, the under sides of the wings of two 

 examples from Senegambia were of a dull brown colour, the soil of that 

 region consisting of reddish sand and ferruginous clay, while specimens 

 from Calabar and Camaroons had their under sides coloured light brown, 

 with numerous small white spots, the soil of these countries being composed 

 of light brown clay and small quartz pebbles. Similarly, examples from 

 Natal and the Mozambique coast approached in colour those of Senegambia, 

 that of the soil being nearly the same. Specimens taken at Magila, in the 

 Ussambara country, were of two varieties, one of a dull red colour, that of 

 the soil, and the other brownish, with white spots, the habit of the insect 

 being to settle both upon the ground and also upon granite boulders, with 

 which that region abounds. Five examples from the banks of the Atbara, 

 in Nubia, showed all the varieties occurring in other localities, this being 

 accounted for by the colour of the various deposits of sediment likely to be 

 made by a river passing through such a series of geological formations 

 as occur between Abyssinia and Nubia. It would thus appear that 

 A. Meleagris, through some original resemblance in the coloration of its 

 wings to certain conditions of soil, has been able to resist tiie attacks of 

 its natural enemies, and thus, meanwhile departing from the habits of the 

 family to which it belongs, had acquired the power of distributing itself 

 throughout a large area of country. 



