316 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall on 



(IX.), although the number offered of these latter was 

 insufficient to warrant a certain conclusion ; cahira was 

 rejected while a considerable proportion of the cncedon 

 and Serena were accepted (V.) ; Itorta evidently possesses 

 a high degree of unpalatability to MantidcV (I., II.). 



Mr. Marshall's evidence, by far the most important 

 collected in the case of the Mantidm, is in entire accord 

 with the few obsei'vations which had been previously 

 recorded. Thus the late Mr. de Niceville found that 

 Acrxa viohv was the only butterfly refused by all the 

 species of Mantis with which he experimented in the 

 East ("Butterflies of India, Burmah, and Ceylon," vol. i, 

 pt. ii, p. 318). Colonel J. W. Yerbury informs me that he 

 watched the Mantis Gongijlus gongyloides hanging from 

 the drooping laventler flowers of a species of Duranta at 

 Trinkomali (1890-91), and capturing the butterflies 

 which were attracted by the bloom. The insect hung by 

 its four posterior legs, with head thrown back and preda- 

 ceous legs held ready for striking. He saw it capture 

 and eat Delias eucharis on several occasions, and also 

 Bchnois mcsentina and the Hesperid Hasora alexis (Fab.). 

 Colonel C. T. Bingham has also given me a male 

 specimen of the Harpagid Mantis, Grcohotra urlmna (Fab.), 

 found by him on a Lantana bush actually eating Delias 

 descomliesi (Boisd.). This observation was made in the 

 North Shan States, Upper Burma, on October 9, 1900. 

 The fact that two species of Delias were thus freely eaten 

 compares in an interesting manner with the acceptance of 

 Mylothris by the African species of Mantis. We may safely 

 conclude that outside the Avnvinx, and doubtfully the 

 Danainm, MantidiV devour butterflies very freely, the 

 species with warning colours as well as the others, and 

 that they are far more undiscriminating than the majority 

 of vertebrate insect-eaters. Thus Mr. F. Finn found Delias 

 eucharis to be one of the most distasteful of all butterflies 

 to many species of Indian birds (" Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng.," 

 vol. Ixvii, PI. ii, No. 4, 1897, p. QQl). Mr. Finn also 

 found in East Africa that a moth of the genus Egyholis 

 [E. raillantinci) was refused by a Chamaeleon and a Gecko 

 ("Natural Science." vol i. No. 10, Dec. 1892, p. 747). It 

 is of deep interest to find such marked differences between 

 the preferences of the various groups of insect-eating 

 animals. 



In addition to the observations recorded above, Dr. 



