- 
xe 
close to a male bee, Aug. 1, 1917, Yukanski Harbour, while 
two other female flies were taken close to 1 9, 1 %, and 2 3, 
Aug. 12, in the same locality. On each date the captures were 
effected by Dr. Cockayne within an hour. The reddish-brown 
abdomen had faded to yellowish in the 9 and %, but in the 
three flies, was richly coloured like the fresher $3 of Bombus. 
THE MIMICRY OF MALE LEPIDOPTERA BY FEMALE AND OF 
FEMALE BY MALE.—Prof. PouLron said that, on thinking 
over Mr. Talbot’s exhibit at the last meeting of a male 
Agaristid moth mimicked by a female butterfly, and its female 
by the male of the same butterfly, it had occurred to him that 
the males and females of this day-flying moth are probably 
on the wing together and do not exhibit sex-differences in 
fight and habits like so many butterflies. If this were so, 
there would be no advantage in the sexes mimicking each 
other and the result would probably entirely depend upgn 
the colours and patterns of the sexes in the non-mimetic 
ancestor of the mimic. 
When the female of a sexually dimorphic butterfly mimicked 
one sex of a sexually dimorphic model, it was not uncommon 
for the male rather than the female to be resembled. Well- 
known and striking examples were Papilio dardanus Brown, 
2 f. planemoides Trim., and the female of Acraea alciope 
Hew., both mimicking the male of Planema macarista E. M. Sh. 
The explanation is probably to be found in the fact that the 
male Planema is more commonly seen than the female and 
therefore more effective as a model. But when both sexes 
of such sexually dimorphic butterflies are mimics, he believed 
that the sexes always kept true to those of the model, and 
that this is to be explained, as suggested above, by the likeness 
between the habits of males and females respectively, render- 
ing the female a better model for the female and the male 
for the male. 
THE OVIPOSITION OF THE MYLABRID BEETLE M. ocuLaTA 
THUNB., VAR. TRICOLOR GeERsT.—Prof. Pouttron read the 
following note, recording Mr. Arthur Loveridge’s observa- 
tions on this beetle, kindly determined by Mr. K. G. Blair 
from the elytra of the specimen sent in the accompanying 
letter from Kilossa :— 
