C exy } 
about the middle of the body this dark colour is suffused with 
white, which is continued downwards and forwards over the 
sides, thus breaking up the dark into two parts, of which the 
anterior section is swollen and larger than the posterior, 
resembling a bird-dropping of unequal diameter. Moreover, 
the larva sometimes adopts a position slightly bent to one 
side, the angle being at the white intersection of the brown 
areas. The filamentous processes at the anterior and posterior 
ends are not at all conspicuous, and I should not fancy the 
suggested mimetic resemblance to an Amauris larva is a 
reality : I am very struck with the bird-dropping likeness.” 
Prof. Poutton said that 3 planemoides and 7 hippocoon 
females had been bred from the eggs laid by the Bugalla 
parent, and that he hoped Dr. Carpenter would exhibit the 
whole family at the June meeting. He also said that Mr. 
W. A. Lamborn, when he had read Dr. Carpenter’s description 
of the larvae, expressed his entire agreement with the sugges- 
tion that there is, at a certain stage, a procryptic resemblance 
to a bird-dropping. 
PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE AND MImicry IN THE MEMBRA- 
cipaE.—Prof. Poutton drew attention to some criticisms 
recently urged by Dr. Arnold Jacobi in “‘ Mimikry und 
Verwandte Erscheinungen”’ (Braunschweig: F. Vieweg & 
Sohn, 1913). In this work the author had objected to the 
procryptic interpretation of the bark-like or thorn-like, etc., 
appearance of the Membracidae, on the ground that these 
insects have remarkable powers of protecting themselves by 
jumping. The following passage as well as that quoted 
somewhat later had been kindly translated for him by Mr. 
HK. A. Elliott, F.E.S., F.Z.8. — 
“Not only is there an entire absence of all observations 
as to the protective value of these resemblances, often cer- 
tainly very distinct from the human point of view, but the 
mode of life of these creatures is against it. In order to deceive 
effectually, protective resemblance demands that the bearer 
shall remain quiescent among surroundings which harmonise 
with its appearance, but the Membracidae are, for their size, 
mighty jumpers, and when approached, or at least when their 
support is shaken, they disappear after the manner of the 
