( xcv ) 
“ Bedrock ” for this year, but I venture to bring them forward 
again as they are of some interest. First, aposemes. 
Rhodogastria leucoptera, Hmpsn. (Arctiidae), found resting 
in an exposed position at Jinja, 1910. Its wings were of a 
pure, hard, shining white colour, but not very thickly scaled, 
so that, when they were brought together over the body of 
the moth, the abdomen, which was of a bright rose-pink, was 
distinctly visible. The thorax was pure white, spotted with 
black; the legs, which were freely displayed, were of the 
same bright rose as the abdomen. When the moth was 
disturbed, it separated its wings and spread out the legs so as 
to display the bright pink (a typical aposeme), and emitted 
from the thorax just behind the head a copious yellow froth, 
till a mass of yellow bubbles with a very strong acrid odour 
(and, I may add, taste) projected on each side. Such frothing 
is a very common method of defence by aposematic insects. 
The abundant and very conspicuous Hypsid moth, pactolicus, 
gives out the same kind of froth when handled, and I have 
proved by offering it to moth-eating monkeys, that it is 
markedly distasteful, for they would never eat it. 
A very beautiful example was again afforded by a large 
grasshopper of the family Acriditdae (Dictyophorus (Petasia) 
laticincta, Walker). It was a very heavy-bodied, slowly moving 
species of dull leaden-black colour, with very small tegmina 
and small incompletely covered wings of reddish colour; its 
large and fat abdomen had red marks on the sides. 
One constantly sees this insect crawling slowly and heavily 
over grassland, and it is extremely conspicuous. It makes no 
attempt to get out of the way, and only feebly hops an inch 
or soif much interfered with. In short, it has all the character- 
istics of a typically protected insect. 
In order to test whether it was really distasteful, I put one 
down in front of three young pet monkeys, who were constantly 
fed on grasshoppers, so that they would expect it to be good 
to eat, as they were accustomed to being given only edible 
grasshoppers and always got greatly excited when the box 
was produced. In this case, however, instead of at once 
snatching it, biting its head off, and then devouring it piece- 
meal, one of the monkeys caught hold of it and looked at it 
PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., 111. 1913. G 
