262 Transactions of the 



red. This would not bind us to any theory, and give more de- 

 cision to our studies, yet quite open to improvements. 



It is at the moment of emergence from the chrysalis the study of 

 this sulstance may he best undertaken, when perhaps the external 

 deposit may be made to adhere to the slide or thin cover. Or the 

 scale from the living insect taken for the examination of the gra- 

 nules within the substance. Possibly it is in the nature of the 

 pigment we may find the function of the scale, if endowed with the 

 property previously suggested. 



Whether individually and collectively the pigmented scales may 

 share in the inherent power of " mimicry " described by Bates and 

 Wallace, by which the bearer establishes a close but false resem- 

 blance to some of the creatures of its own kind, to avoid personal 

 detection, or to a different order or division of the organic kingdom, 

 as in the simulation of leaves by the leaf butterfly, not only in the 

 healthy condition, but also in " every stage of decay, blotched, 

 mildewed, pierced with holes, and in many cases irregularly covered 

 with powdery black dots, gathered into patches and spots, so closely 

 resembling the various kinds of minute fungi that grow on dead 

 leaves, that it is impossible to avoid thinking at first sight that the 

 butterflies themselves have been attached by real fungi ; * — 



Or whether, as in the Hehconidae, any power be shared by them 

 in common with other organs, of furnishing a disagreeable odour, 

 are questions bearing on the subject, but which, for want of speci- 

 mens, have not been examined ; — 



Or again, whether the scales harmonizing beauty and utility 

 may not more directly than is generally suspected enter into rela- 

 tionship with the httle amatory episodes of these insect creatures, 

 by adding increased brilhancy and splendour to the already highly- 

 attractive nuptial vestments of both sexes ; — 



Or whether they may be individually or collectively wanting in 

 these endowments, and only modified by the local influences of 

 climate or food, must not be overlooked in their study. Of the 

 variabihty in Kallima ^araleJda, the under surface is described as 

 so " variable in colour, that out of fifty specimens no two can be 

 found exactly alike, but every one of them will be of some shade of 

 ash or brown or ochre, such as we find among dead, diy, or decaying 

 leaves." 



My friend Mr. Mclntire, who has given us such valuable par- 

 ticulars of the hfe and habits of some of the Thysanuradeae, points 

 out that the change of skin takes place at the time when the scales 

 are in all stages of development, that the growth of the scales is 

 arrested, that they dry up and form a somewhat thick layer of 

 elastic corrugated plates on the dehcate skin of the owner ; whereas 



* See also Wallace's " Natural Selection," " Malay Archipelago.'' 



