( xcvi ) 



Habits of Limenitis. — Professor E. B. Poulton, F.R,&., 

 read a note on the drinking habits of Limenitis syhilla, com- 

 municated by Mr. Keynes of Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

 A discussion followed in which Mr. H. Rowland-Brown, the 

 Rev. G. Wheeler and other Fellows joined, suggesting from 

 observations made in the foi^est of Eclepens, Switzerland, 

 and elsewhere, that there is nothing unusual in the settling 

 habit of this species in wai^m moist woodland places to drink. 



Mimicry by Colaenis telesiphe and Belenois thysa, 

 PROBABLY MiJLLERiAN. — Dr. P. A. DixEY exhibited specimens 

 of Colaenis, Heliconius, Pereule, Mylotliris and Belenois, and 

 remarked on them as follows : — 



" It will probably be some time before a complete agree- 

 ment is reached as to the delimitation of frontier between 

 Batesian and Miillerian mimicry. One character that has 

 been suggested as a criterion is the possession of cryptic 

 colouring on the under surface. It has been argued, as by 

 Mr. Shelford, that no insect is likely to be both aposematically 

 and cryptically coloured at the same time ; and that therefore 

 any mimic, such as Protogonius, whose under side is adapted 

 for concealment, must be of the Batesian and not of the 

 Miillerian description. I have myself always been doubtful 

 as to the value of this criterion, and I have reason to know 

 that my doubts are shared by Prof. Poulton. 



" It will be remembered that at the last meeting I showed 

 that Colaenis telesiphe, Hew., though undoubtedly a mimic of 

 Meliconius telesiphe, Doubl., was cryptically coloured beneath. 

 But the available facts as to the relative frequency of the 

 two species, as stated by Prof. Poulton, make it difficult to 

 apply Batesian principles to the interpretation of the present 

 case. Since that meeting. Mr. W. F. H. Rosenberg has 

 kindly furnished me with some additional details as to the 



form " variety of A. tcrticx — A. nrticas ab. iqformis — to be the result of a 

 potentially inherent fo-form tendency yet found latent in some individuals 

 of autumn broods, and brought to active life by the direct sunrays which, 

 — if not met by the said creative tendency, would only either blotch, dull or 

 brighten the image, leaving it otherwise normal. During hot autumn 

 seasons — for instance September 1907 and the October of this year — this 

 io-lorm variety might have occurred in the natural state and possibly 

 examples of it may have been captured. Artificially it might also be bred 

 by other means than sunrays — the said creative tendency being the first 

 and chief factor. 



