( Ivii ) 



changes in the stratified thin films of liquid, which, by inter- 

 ference of light, produced the metallic appearance. Prof. 

 Poulton believed that a similar eft'ect was to be seen shortly 

 before normal emergence, but, as it lasted for a very short 

 time, it was noticed rarely as compared with the far more 

 enduring effect of parasitism. It was to be observed, finally, 

 that the Chalcid parasite laid its eggs in the pupa immediately 

 after the larval skin had been thrown off and before harden- 

 ing, and that the pupal colours had been determined much 

 earlier, during the second and third of the prepupational 

 stages of the larva, viz. " for about 20 hours preceding the last 

 12 hours " before the skin is thrown off and the pupa revealed 

 (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. 178 (1887), B, pp. 319-98, 438-9). 



A SYNAPOSEMATIC SERIES OF 272 LyCID BEETLES OF 9 

 SPECIES TAKEN ON ONE PLANT IN ONE DAY BY G. D. H. CAR- 

 PENTER, IN LATE German East Africa. — Prof. Poulton 

 exhibited the series referred to in the following extract from 

 Captain Carpenter's letter of March 24, 1917, from Itigi (in 

 34°, 30' E., 5° 45' S., on the Central Railway, about 150 miles 

 E. of Tabora), where the beetles were captured. The food- 

 plant, of which a piece was exhibited, had been kindly deter- 

 mined by Dr. 0. Stapf, F.R.S., as the Asclepiad Pentarrhmum 

 insipidum, E. Meyer, common and widely distributed in 

 tropical and South Africa. Prof. Poulton had added [to 

 Captain Carpenter's table] the names of the species and the 

 numbers by which each was represented in the collection, 



" I am now sending you a small box of about 270 Lycidae. 

 On 23. iii. 171 came on a flowering creeper which had a number 

 on it, and started picking off a few of the different species. 

 While doing so it suddenly struck me how much you would 

 like a large number, for the proportion of species. So I set 

 to work to collect them all into two empty tins which soon 

 got full. I couldn't absolutely clear the bush because more 

 beetles kept arriving on the wing, but, practically speaking, 

 I got 99 %. It was quite interesting laying them out after 

 the slaughter and trying to make out how many species there 

 were, with the aid of 17 pairs found in copula. I made out 

 9 sj)ecies, at least, of two or probably three genera, and the 

 numbers are as follows : — 



