1X 
Election of a Member. 
Mr. William Lucas Distant, of Streatham Cottage, Dulwich, was balloted 
for and elected an Ordinary Member. 
Exhibitions, &c. 
Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited a number of young Mantide that had 
emerged from an egg-case received from Ceylon, and remarked on their 
great resemblance to those recently exhibited from Borneo. 
Mr. Bond exhibited a locust which had been taken alive at the bottom of 
a dry well near the Race Mill, Brighton. The species was uncertain. 
Mr. Sealy read the following notes on the species of Ornithoptera exhibited 
at the last Meeting :— 
“The insect occurs in tolerable abundance along the coast of South 
Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. At the town of Cochin, where I live, 
it is frequently seen. I have also observed it many miles inland, flying 
over the trees in the low jungles at the foot of the Western Ghauts; but I 
have not noticed it at any great height above the sea. In Cochin Ihave seen 
it from March to August flying over the tops of the tallest cocoa palms, 
occasionally descending to hover over the flowers—especially those of the 
large scarlet Hibiscus, near which I have caught it in my own garden. 
The males seem less common than the females, and seldom were perfect on 
the wing. For several years I could get no information regarding the 
larva; none of the natives knew it, but last monsoon I obtained it, and 
during June and July many were collected; they fed upon Aristolochia 
indica, and apparently upon it only. The larve were very splendid, of a 
rich velvety black, with a lateral band and a saddle of white and red, very 
roughly tubercled, and the tubercles tipped with red. I cannot from memory 
attempt a closer description. A plate in ‘“ Wood’s Natural History ” of the 
imago and larva of a species there given as Ornithoptera Amphrisius cor- 
responds very closely with this Cochin species. But there seems some doubt 
about itsidentity. On July 19, 1874, T obtained a large quantity both of larvee 
and pup: the larve I fed upon Aristolochia, and many changed to pupe 
From these many emerged before I left India (August 13), and others on 
board ship from the pups I took with me. They appear to remain about 
three weeks in pupa. The pupa possesses the power of making a curious 
noise, like ‘‘ pha, pha,” and makes it very loudly when touched; the noise 
is accompanied (perhaps produced) by a sharp contraction of the abdominal 
segments. I thought at first it was merely produced by the rubbing of one 
ring of the pupa case against the next, but the sound did not resemble a 
mere frictional sound, it was more like the sound of the rush of air through 
small holes, “pha, pha!” I tried to produce it with a dead chrysalis, but 
failed: the pupa sometimes contracted on being touched without making 
Cc 
