which simulate the leaves or twigs of trees upon which ihey live, were eaten with 

 avidity. 



Mr. Butler's observaiions were on the consumption or rejection of larvfe by lizards, 

 fro,i;s and spiders; both lizards and frogs would eat hairy larvae; and even the stings 

 of bees had no deterrent effect upon a lizard. 



These two papers led to a prolonged conversation, in which the President, 

 Mr. Home, Mr. A. R. Wallace, Mr. Butler, Mr. M'Lachlan and Dr. Wallace, took 

 jnirt. 



Mr. Home said that in India lizards were almost omnivorous, and ale bees with 

 avidity; a friend of his. Colonel Ramsay, had hives of Apis dorsata placed near some 

 stone walls or terraces, which were a favourite resort of lizards; they would come to 

 the mouths of the hives, lie in wait for the bees, and take them, sting and all. Larvae 

 of all sorts, smooth or bairy, dull or bright, were eaten by lizards ; but scorpions were 

 rejected ; bears, however, would eat scorpions, and he had seen bears turn over stones 

 in search of scorpions, and eat them regardless of their stings. He had noticed that 

 a common Indian species of Carabus, and all the blister-beetles, seemed to be free 

 from attacks of any animal. 



Dr. Wallace said that the larvae of Bombyx Cynthia, which were both gaily 

 coloured and covered with tubercles, were eaten by cuckoos, robins and tomtits: the 

 two latter made holes in the skin and took out the inside, whilst the cuckoos swallowed 

 the larvae whole. 



Mr. Alfred R. Wallace was pleased to find that the observations of Mr. Weir went 

 so far to support the theory which, reasoning entirely from the analogy of what had 

 been observed in the Heliconiidae, he had ventured to suggest in answer to a question 

 of Mr. Darwin's. He thought there was now a solid foundation of fact for the hypo- 

 thesis that the bright colour of larvae was protective, and was (as it were) a flag hung 

 out to warn ofiF their enemies. Doubtless every detail either of form or colour had its 

 object and bearing upon the history of the creature. It was not necessary that the law 

 should be absolute or the rule universal ; he did not expect to find, on the contrary he 

 should have been surprised if it had been found, that all brightly coloured larvae were 

 peculiarly protected, or that the bright colour of any particular larva protected it from 

 all enemies ; if it thereby obtained protection from a single enemy, if it was left 

 exposed to the attack of but one enemy less than its neighbours, to that extent at 

 least the colour gave it an advantage ; the theory of protective warning supplied the 

 reason for, and afforded a rational explanation of, the gay colouring, which in the 

 case of larvae could not be accounted for by sexual selection. 



March 15, 1869. 

 H. W. Bates, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Election of Member. 

 H. Grose Smith, Esq., of Surbiton, was balloited for, and elected a Member. 



Exhibitions, ^c. 

 Mr. Frederick Smith exhibited specimens of Colletes cunicularia, a bee new to this 

 country: they had been sent to him by Mr. Nicholas Cooke, by whose son, Mr. Isaac 



