316 Mr. G. A. K. Marsball on 



(IX.), althougli the numbci' offered of these latter was 

 insufficient to warrant a certain conclusion ; cahira was 

 rejected while a considerable proj)ortion of" the cnccdon 

 and sercna were accepted (V.) ; Itorta evidently possesses 

 a high degree of unpalatability to Manti(l[& (I., II.). 



Mr. Marshall's evidence, by far the most important 

 collected in the case of the Manliihv., is in entire accord 

 with the few obseavations which had been previously 

 recorded. Thus the late Mr. de Nicoville found that 

 Acnea viohtt was the only butterfly refused by all the 

 species of Mantis with which he experimented in the 

 East ("Butterflies of India, Burmah, and Ceylon," vol. i, 

 pt. ii, p. 318). Colonel J. W. Yerbury informs me that he 

 watched the Mantis G<mg//h(s goiKjyloichs hanging from 

 the drooping lavender flowers of a species of Duranta at 

 Trinkomali (1890-91), and capturing the butterflies 

 which were attracted by the bloom. The insect hung by 

 its four posterior legs, with head thrown back and preda- 

 ceous legs held ready for striking. He saw it capture 

 and eat Delias eucliaris on several occasions, and also 

 Belenois mcscniina and the Hesperid Hasora alcxis (Fab.). 

 Colonel C. T. Binoham has also jiiven me a male 

 specimen of the Harpagid Mantis, Crcohotra urhana (Fab.), 

 found by him on a Lantana bush actually eating Delias 

 descomhcsi (Boisd.). This observation was made in the 

 North Shan States, Upper Burma, on October 9, 1900. 

 The fact that two species of Delias were thus freely eaten 

 compares in an interesting manner with the acceptance of 

 Mylothris by the African species of Mantis. We may safely 

 conclude that outside the Acrieinie, and doubtfully the 

 Danainx, Mantidfn devour butterflies very freely, the 

 species with warning colours as well as the others, and 

 that they are far more undiscriminating than the majority 

 of vertebrate insect-eaters. Thus Mr. F. Finn found Delias 

 cucharis to be one of the most distasteful of all butterflies 

 to many species of Indian birds (" Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng.," 

 vol Ixvii, PI. ii, No. 4, 1897, p. G67). Mr. Finn also 

 found in East Africa that a moth of the genus Ugyholis 

 {F. vaillantina^ was refused by a Chamceleon and a Gecko 

 ("Natural Science," vol i. No. 10, Dec. 1892, p. 747). It 

 is of deei3 interest to find such marked dififerences between 

 the preferences of the various groups of insect-eating 

 animals. 



In addition to the observations recorded above, Ur. 



