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[lvii 

 Insects seeking High Ground. — The President said that 

 about the beginning of July this year, he had noticed, while 

 collecting near El Guerrab, the junction for Constantine, 

 Biskra and Alger, both sexes of the yellow and black Leucospis 

 giyas, and of another red and black Leucospis, flying in great 

 numbers, with a loud humming noise, round a cairn of stones 

 on the top of a hill, and suggested that the common instinct 

 to seek high places might provide a meeting-ground for the 

 sexes. He had been surprised to find these insects together 

 in such numbers, as, being parasitic on different species, they 

 would be likely to be separated. 



Prof. Poulton referred to his communication "A possible 

 explanation of insect swarms on mountain tops " (Proc. Ent. 

 Soc. 1904, p. xxiv.), and suggested that the instinct referred 

 to by the President would probably be especially useful in the 

 case of parasitic insects whose hosts might naturally be separ- 

 ated, as some means of providing a meeting-place would be 

 particularly necessary. 



Wednesday, October 18th, 1911. [ lix 



Exhibitions. 



Papilio (Tachyris) melania, Fabr. — Dr. F. A. Dixey ex- 

 hibited a pair of each of the following species — Tachyris 

 melania, Fabr., T. celestina and Catophaga ega, Boisd., and 

 remarked upon them as follows : — 

 lx] 



" Papilio melania was described by Fabricius in 1775, and 

 figured by Donovan (Ins. N. Holl., 1805). Much doubt has 

 prevailed as to the identification of Fabricius's species. 

 Boisduval's P. melania, according to A. B. Wallace, is the 

 female of Catophaga ega, Boisd. Wallace himself said, in 

 1867, 'The Papilio melania of Fabricius has not yet been 

 properly identified, and probably never will be.' He was no 

 doubt unaware that Fabricius's type was preserved in the 

 Banksian Cabinet, where it may still be seen. 



" In 1884, Miskin applied the name T. melania to the female 



