( xix ) 



when it was described and figured by Mr. W. L. Distant in 

 the Transactions of the Society for that year. Mention was 

 made as to how the vast difference in the sexes arose, and it 

 was suggested as probable that originally both sexes were blue 

 with a broad white band, as is the case with the allied 

 Morpho cypris and Morpho helena. The $ had, however, now 

 lost all trace of the white band, while the $ had retained 

 the white band and suppressed all the blue scaling. In 

 Morpho cacica, £ , normally the white band was absent, but as 

 a rare aberration a well-defined band was present, thus show- 

 ing that this phase of development was frequent in the genus. 

 Amongst the male specimens were two that had apparently 

 been attacked by natural enemies. One showed a large beak- 

 shaped rent in one of the fore-wings, indicating attack while 

 the insect was sailing with outstretched wings. Another had 

 a large piece removed from the anal angle of both hind-wings ; 

 the damage on both sides coinciding when the insect was 

 sitting with folded wings. 



Dr. F. A. Dixev exhibited the social web and pupal shells 

 of Euckeira socialis. Westw., together with specimens of the 

 perfect insect, and made the following observations : — 



" By the kindness of Professor Poulton I am able to show 

 the common larval habitation of the remarkable gregarious 

 Pierine Eueheira socialis, Westw. This is the actual nest, 

 from Mexico, which was described and figured b}^ Westwood 

 in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1836, p. 38, and PI. VI, figs. 1 and 

 2. The longitudinal incision is the one originally made by the 

 late Hope Professor ; the two transverse cuts have recently 

 been added by myself, with the object of displaying the interior 

 of the nest more clearly. The figure in our Transactions shows 

 the upper part of the receptacle, and the twig which descends 

 through its neck, thickly covered with the pupa? of the butter- 

 fly suspended by their tails — a most unusual mode of attach- 

 ment among the Pierinrc, though not entirely unexampled. 

 At some time in the period of over seventy years during which 

 this specimen has been preserved, the dried pupse have been 

 attacked by some cabinet pest, as a result of which many have 

 been detached from the wall of the nest, and several have 

 crumbled away. Such of these loosened pupse and their 



