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time for the Congress. Just as I was coming away I saw 

 a beautiful obscura, whose large very pale areas indicated 

 more than a touch of the female hobleyi. It was fluttering 

 about from bush to bush, and was too shy to let me get near 

 to catch it. At last it settled and hung from the underside 

 of a leaf, and I was able to see it had a fairly distinct basal 

 triangle. It remained motionless a few seconds, and though 

 this attitude is exceptional for a Pseudacraea (they always 

 rest on the upper side of a leaf with wings usually expanded), 

 it never struck me what was up ! I tried to catch it, but it 

 flew off before I got within striking distance. It then occurred 

 to me to look at the leaf and, to my inexpressible joy and 

 excitement, there was a freshly-laid egg on the middle of the 

 under surface, still moist with the secretion which fastened 

 it to the leaf. The tree was a very small young specimen, 

 only about six feet high, but it was the same species as that 

 on which Ps. lucretia fed on Damba ; and there was a small 

 colony of these trees at that spot, which had hitherto escaped 

 my notice. So if this egg produces a Ps. terra (and the 

 chances are in favour of this, as terra is much the commonest 

 here), you will have the proof you so ardently desire, seeing 

 that the parent was a mixture of hobleyi and obscura ! Any 

 how, now that I know and have found the food plant, I may 

 have better luck in getting a captive Pseudacraea to lay. 

 There is just time for the egg, larva and pupa to develop 

 before the Congress at Oxford is over, so that should the 

 offspring be terra or hobleyi I will let you know. As of course 

 there will be no time to write I will cable, just the one word, 

 either hobleyi or terra. If it is obscura I won't cable, but will, 

 of course, write. I feel that it will be such a splendid oppor- 

 tunity for making this result known, when you will be showing 

 cxvi] 



the Pseudacraeas with especial intent to prove their con- 

 specificity by the intermediate forms." 



Prof. Poulton explained that the cable with the word 

 "terra" reached him on Aug. 19, nine days after the Congress 

 had come to an end, and that he had published the discovery 

 in a letter to " Nature " (Sept. 12, 1912, p. 36). The specimen 

 itself had since arrived and was exhibited to the meeting, 



