xi] ( a} 
of a few days, still retained a very unpleasant smell. Dr. 
Schonland had sent the following statement on the subject :— 
“On a recent trip (Sept. 1903) to the North-eastern 
Kalahari, we noticed on our first outspan, about eight miles 
west of Palapye Road Station, an awful stench, which, how- 
ever, passed off after a time. It turned out afterwards that 
it emanated from some ants living in trees. We noticed them 
again at Serowe, Khama’s capital, but unfortunately there was 
no opportunity then to make any detailed observations and we 
did not meet with them again, although I was told that they 
are not uncommon in Khama’s country. Recently a friend of 
mine, Mr. 8. Blackbeard, of Serowe, sent me some from 
Mapellapveda, about forty-five miles N.W. of Palapye Road 
Station, and I forward a few of them to you by this post. I 
have never come across any notice of them. Have you? 
They open up a wide field of biological enquiry. How do 
they produce the odour which comes near that awful stench 
of the well-known Caralluma lutea (an Asclepiad plant) found 
in the same neighbourhood? Can they let off their artillery 
at will? Do they use it as a means of defence, or, like 
their friend the Asclepiad, do they mean it to attract 
flies 1” 
The Presipent exhibited a cluster of the green eggs of 
Vanessa urticx fixed to the under-side of a small leaf towards 
the summit of a nettle-stem. The cryptic resemblance of the 
eggs to their environment was very remarkable. The eggs 
had been sent for exhibition to the Society by Mr. A. H. 
Hamm of the Hope Department, Oxford University Museum. 
The following observations upon the oviposition of a part of 
the exhibited egg-mass were recorded by Mr. Hamm :— 
“While walking along the Shotover Road near Oxford on 
Sunday morning last (May 29), my attention was directed to a 
specimen of Vanessa urtice which was sitting motionless with 
wings expanded horizontally on the upper-side of a small leaf 
near the top of a nettle-stem. On looking more closely I 
found that the butterfly was engaged in ovipositing, the 
abdomen being curved round the edge of the leaf so that the 
eggs were deposited upon the under surface. When first seen 
she had laid about half of the batch now exhibited, Although 
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