514 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
2nd, dimorphism or polymorphism ; 3rd, local forms; 4th, coexisting 
varieties ; 5th, races or sub-species ; and, 6th, true species. The first 
includes all great instability of specific form; the second, polymor- 
phism or dimorphism, differs from the first in this—that the offspring 
differs from the parents in a considerable degree, and in a manner 
more or less constant and regular—so that, of the offspring of a single 
pair, some will resemble their parents, while others will differ from 
them, but the difference will be tolerably fixed and definite, and inter- 
mediate varicties will never occur. He explained how such a state of 
things came about in a Philippine island butterfly, Papilio alphenor. 
But the most interesting portion of his observations was directed to 
the subject of variation as specially influenced by locality, for example, 
the fact that the species of this Indian region (Sumatra, Java, &c.) 
are almost invariably smaller than the allied species of Celebes and 
the Moluccas. The most remarkable of these cases was that of the 
island of Celebes, almost all the Papilionidex, Pierids, and some of the 
Nymphalide of which had acquired a peculiar curve of the upper 
wings, amounting in some instances to an abrupt bend. If, he argues, 
the butterflies of the Celebes acquired their longer and more curved 
wings owing to the persecution of bird or insect enemies, from which 
they could only escape by increased powers of flight, it is evident that 
those which had already some other means of protection would receive 
no benefit from a change in the form of their wings, and therefore 
could not acquire it by the action of natural selection. This also ex- 
plains why none of the Danaidz are so modified, for they are univer- 
sally the objects of mimicry by other groups, and are therefore already 
protected. These Danaide are a nuisance to the collector from their 
abundance and ubiquity, and their strong and peculiar odour is be- 
lieved to be the cause of their safety, and they are, for this reason, 
habitually passed over by insectivorous creatures. Mr. Wallace, 
therefore, with Mr. Bates, argues that mimicry is in all these instances 
a means of protection. 
In a discussion which recently took place in the Entomological 
Society with reference to the luminosity of fire-flies, Mr. Bates re- 
marked that the Honduras fire-fly (Fulgora lanternaria) was pretty 
common in the upper Amazons, but he had never found it luminous ; 
moreover, although the creature figured in their fables, and was 
reputed to be poisonous, there was no rumour current among the 
natives of its being luminous. 
M. Siebold has communicated to the Helvetic Society of Natural 
Sciences a curious fact of parthenogenesis of bees. A hive at Con- 
stance furnished for four years a considerable number of hermaphro- 
dite bees, which immediately after their hatching are expelled from 
the hive by the workers. None of these individuals resemble one 
another ; sometimes one side is male and the other female, or the an- 
terior parts (head, eyes, antenne, &c.) are of one sex, while the pos- 
terior belong to the other; while sometimes the internal apparatus 
belongs to one sex and the external to the other. Some individuals 
are, in the interior, males on the right side and females on the left, 
while the reverse is the case on the exterior. The eggs from 
