( Ixi ) 



described (p. 48 n.) an interesting migration of Megaponera 

 from an old nest to a new one about 60 ft. distant. About 

 every 15 feet the party halted and waited for all the eggs, 

 larvae, pupae, and most of the stragglers. The single queen — 

 never before seen in this species — was captured at the third 

 halt. 



Interesting butterflies prom the east coast of 

 Madagascar. — Prof. Poulton exhibited specimens from a col- 

 lection kindly sent to the Hope Department by Archdeacon 

 G. K. Kestell-Cornish, from Ambinanindrano, Mahanoro 

 (about 400 ft.). 



1. Hypolimnas bolina, L. — This butterfly had evidently 

 recently spread to Madagascar, as it is not mentioned by 

 Aurivillius in Seitz's " Macrolepidoptera." The form is that 

 of India and Ceylon, with the mimetic female jacintha, Drury, 

 resembling Euploeas of the pattern of Crastia core, L. The 

 same form has been known for many years in Socotra. Arch- 

 deacon Kestell-Cornish had suddenly noticed this species for 

 the first time in his garden a few years ago. They increased 

 rapidly and had now become one of the commonest butter- 

 flies. It was of great interest to observe that the specimens 

 were fairly sharply divisible into the larger dry and smaller 

 wet season forms. A clear succession from the wet (Aug. — 

 Nov.) to the dry forms (Nov. — Mch.) was shown in the 

 table on page Ixii. 



The males were alone considered in this table because 

 they were more numerous and also because the differences 

 were far more apparent in this sex. Indeed, the mimetic 

 jacintha females, both dry and wet, seemed obviously to have 

 been derived from the pattern of the dry form of male. The 

 differences between the two forms of male seemed to be 

 precisely as in the Indian bolina. Col. Bingham in vol. i (1905) 

 of the Butterflies in the " Fauna of British India " series 

 (p. 388) stated that " the blue patch on the upperside of 

 the hind-wing is sometimes in both seasonal forms entirely 

 devoid of the pale centering." In the Madagascar specimens, 

 on the other hand, as well as in those from India in the Hope 

 Department, the reduction or absence of the pale centering 

 was certainly a characteristic feature of the dry males alone. 



