( 20 ) 



Grinderwald, Hanover, by Dr. Karl Jordan. One female,, 

 captured in coitil, was devouring the Pentatomid bug, Dolycoris 

 baccarum, de G., male ; the other was carrying a worker 



1 «J of Vespa rufa, L, Asilidee. preying upon the formidable 



Diploptera had often been recorded from tropical countries, 

 but never before, so far as the speaker was aware, from 

 Europe. 



Professor E. B. Poultox then made the following com- 

 munication : — 



On the species of Neptis in the islands to the E. and 



' ' « THE N". W. OF Madagascar. — My attention was first directed 



to the interesting and puzzling problem presented by these 

 species by the recent communications of Colonel N. Manders, 

 F.E.S., and by the specimens collected by him in Mauritius 

 and Bourbon. The considerable difference in detail between 

 Neptis frohenia, F., of Mauritius, and N. dumetorum, Boisd.,of 



[xxxiv 

 Bourbon, at first suggested that the two species were not 

 nearly allied, and that their marked superficial resemblance 

 may have been due to mimicry. At the same time any 

 attempt to explain the growth of a mimetic likeness presented 

 the gravest difficulties. The details of the pattern of dume- 

 torum indicated close affinity with the black and white Xeptis 

 saclava, Boisd., of Madagascar and the mainland of Africa; 

 while the much greater simplification, especially on the under 

 surface, oifrohenia, suggested affinity with the Austro-Malayan 

 species of the group of X. consimilis, Boisd. If this interpre- 

 tation were correct, f when la would take its place beside the 

 species of Eujjlcea as representatives of an Eastern butterfly 

 fauna. Mr. G. A. K. Marshall has, however, carefully 

 examined the neuration of these species, as well as X. 

 comorarum, Oberth., from the Comoros, and X. mayottensis 

 from Mayotte, and has compared them in this respect with 

 saclava and consimilis. His results leave no doubt that, as 

 regards this important character, X.frohenia, as well as the 

 other three species of Xeptis in the islands suri'ounding^ 

 Madagascar, is closely related to saclava and remote fi'om 

 consimilis. Mr. Marshall has kindly drawn up the following 

 account of the evidence of affinity based on neuration : — 



