( -^Iv ) 



then withdrawn and a sausage-shaped egg laid in the slit : an- 

 other slit was cut parallel with and immediately below the last, 

 and another egg laid. The operation was repeated until a long 

 row of obliqviely-placed eggs lay like a seam beside the midrib 

 or vein. He had watched the rapid swelling of the eggs thus 

 laid, probably by absorption from the leaf tissues, and had 

 preserved examples at various stages up to the point at which 

 the larvae hatched. These were exhibited to the meeting. 



Wide-ranging Lepidoptera. — Mr. T. Bainbrigge Fletcher 

 exhibited examples of Lepidoptera common to the African, 

 Indian and Australian Regions (some of them occurring in 

 America also), and remarked that, in working out the 

 Lepidoptera of the " Sealark " Expedition collected by him in 

 1905 amongst the Islands of the Indian Ocean, he had been 

 much struck with the large proportion — some 30 per cent, of 

 all the species collected — which were common to these three 

 regions. The usual remark, he said, would be that these were 

 all common and widely-distributed species, but this observation 

 though correct enough in itself entirely failed to give any 

 reason for their wide distribution. Many of these Lepidoptera 

 are extremely variable, and it appeared to him incredible that 

 they should retain their specific facies throughout the vast 

 area of their distribution in the absence of some fairly constant 

 syngamic connection. The existence of what has been called 

 a "syngamic chain " had been postulated in the case of certain 

 strong-flying species such as Pyrameis cardui and some such 

 connection seemed a necessary assumption ; at the same time 

 this " syngamic chain " theory threw little light on the 

 natural means of disjjersion which, especially in the case of 

 small and weak-winged insects such as Pyralidae and Ptero- 

 phoridae, would appear to be much more eflicient and regular 

 than was usually supposed to be the case. He put forward 

 the suggestion that this means of dispei-sal was to be found in 

 the action of cyclonic storms in conjunction with the movements 

 of the upper strata of the atmosphere. 



Black Ants and their Mimics. — Mr. Fletcher also 

 brought for exhibition (a) examples of four species of black 

 ants : a Cicindelid beetle, Derocrania concinna ; an Attid 

 spider ; and two species of Rhynchota, all of which have under 



