6. 



ON THE PALATABILITY OF SOME BItlTISH INSECTS. 809 



[From the Proceedings oe the Zoological Society or London. 



1911.] 

 [Published September 1911.] 



On the Palatability of: some British Insects, with Notes 

 on the Significance of Mimetic Resemblances. Bv 

 R. I. Pocock, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., Superintendent 

 of the Society's Gardens and Curator of Mammals. 

 With Notes upon the Experiments. By Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



Introduction. 



At the request of Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., I undertook, in 

 the summer of 1909 and again in that of 1910*, to make a series 

 of experiments in the Zoological Gardens to test the palatability 

 of various species of British Insects. Much of the material was 

 sent to me by Dr. G. B. Longstaff from Morthoe in Devonshire. 

 Some I received from Prof. Poulton himself or from friends of 

 his. A few species I added on my own account ; notably the 

 stick insects and the ants, of which we had an abundant supply 

 in the Insect House in the Gardens. Those that I supplied 

 I identified myself. The rest were in all cases named by the 

 senders. To the insects Dr. Longstaff added a number of slugs, 

 which were identified, I understand, by Mrs. Longstaff. 



Since the majority of the experiments were made with English 

 Insects, it is regrettable that English, or at all events Palsearctic 

 birds, were, for the most part, unavailable for the tests. There 

 were two reasons for this. In the first place, Palsearctic insecti- 

 vorous birds were not strongly represented in the Society's 



* Records of a few experiments made in 1011 have been incorporated in the text. 



