Misee llaneous. 119 



a real process of improvement and had acquired a sufficient 

 degree of sensitiveness. Moreover, ants only make their 

 appearance during the tertiary epoch. 



The perfecting process must likewise have been accelerated 

 by the difficulty experienced by the larva in emerging from the 

 egg-shell. At this time it frequently happens that the tarsus 

 of one of the limbs remains fixed in the hard round shell, 

 which is then dragged along like a ball by the insect. 

 Severe strains result from this every moment, when the 

 shell is caught in some obstacle. These strains, if not always 

 sufficient to produce autotomy, nevertheless pretty often 

 bring about the mutilation of the tarsus, which, after being 

 torn off, is abandoned either in its entirety or else merely in 

 part, together with the egg-shell. This, then, must again 

 have contributed to the development of the regenerative 

 faculty possessed by the tarsus and the lower third of the 

 tibia. 



Saurians and Batrachians, represented by the Stegocephali 

 as early as the primary epoch, then certain small mammals 

 beginning with the secondary epoch, although they do not 

 appear to be able to produce mutilations in the shape of 

 clean amputations of the femur and tibia, were nevertheless 

 capable of contributing to the development of the regenerative 

 faculty in the tarsal region, as well as to the perfecting of 

 autotomy. But their attacks could not have been one of the 

 primary causes of the appearance of the special disposition 

 permitting autotomy first and regeneration afterwards. 



In a communication shortly to appear I propose to seek 

 for these primary causes. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on Papilio glycerion, Gray. 

 By F. A. Hekon, Assistant, British Museum (Natural History). 



In 1831 no. 1 of Gray's ' Zoological Miscellany' contained, on 

 page 32, the short Latin diagnosis by Geo. Robert Gray printed 

 below : — 



" Papilio Glycerion. — P. alis flavescentibus, fasciis nigris ; posticis 

 caudatis apice nigro, lunulis marginalibus caeruleis, angulo ani striga 

 rlava. Expansio alarum 3 poll. Habitat in Nepaul." 



The original of the description is said to be in the collection of 

 General Hardwicke. 



Twelve jears later — in 1843 — Boisduval (Spec. Gen. Le'p. i. 



