XCV 
there is a remnant of the distal end of this marking in the 
female exhibited and a trace in the first male. It is probable 
that this marking, which can also be traced in some examples 
of P. rex mimeticus Roths., is a vestige of an ancestral non- 
mimetic pattern, and its presence suggests a black yellow- 
marked Papilio which only required to develop the brown 
basal fore-wing patch in order to become a mimic. 
The flight of Papilio rex is somewhat slow and leisurely, 
though often lofty and sustained. The species is also 
decidedly slow in starting from rest. The male is to be 
found at damp spots near rivers, and both sexes frequent 
flowers. 
It is remarkable that when settled on flowers the wings 
hang straight downwards, without any motion. All other 
species of Papilio, even mimetic species, when feeding on 
flowers, stand on tip-toe, so to speak, and constantly flutter 
their wings. This habit is so general that it is often possible 
to recognise a mimicking Papilio by it. 
AN ORIENTAL DANAINE BUTTERFLY BRUSHING THE BRANDS 
ON ITS HIND-wincs.—Mr. W. A. LamBorn communicated 
the following observation and exhibited the insect concerned: — 
“ Happening to look up from a microscope while at work 
in the Laboratory in Kuala Lampur, F.M.S., January 15, 1921, 
I saw a male Danaine butterfly, which Prof. Poulton has 
kindly determined as Parantica agleoides Moore, settle with 
wings expanded on a plant outside. I immediately went 
out to watch it and saw that the hind-wings were apposed 
for about the posterior third of their surface, and that the 
anal brushes were protruded, the abdomen being curved so 
as to bring them into line with the brands on the hind- 
wings. Over these the unexpanded brushes were passed at 
about the rate of twenty a minute. The operation went on 
so long—about five minutes—that I was able to send, first 
for a chair on which to stand so as to watch the insect more 
closely, and then for a net to secure it.”’ 
MANTISPIDS BRED FROM THE EGG-COCOON OF A SPIDER.— 
Mr. W. A. Lamporn exhibited four Mantispids which emerged, 
between 6th and 8th March, 1921, from as many little cocoons 
which he found at Kuala Lampur, early in that month, on~ 
