( xxiii ) 



der Rostpilze'(Denk. Akad. Wiss. Wien., xlvi., 4 — 52; 1881), as feeding 

 upon this last-named form — the Rcestelia, viz. : — Coleoptera 9 species, 

 Hymeuoptera 9, Diptera 18, Hemiptera 1, and some 7 ants." 



Sir Sidney Saunders communicated the purport of two letters addressed 

 to him by M. Edmond Andre, of Beaune, upon the subject of the terminal 

 segments "des Chalcides a queue"; stating that, after further investigation, 

 he concurred iu considering Sichel's so-called hypopygium in those geuera 

 (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. xxvi, fig. 7d) as a conjoint segment com- 

 prising the dorsal and ventral arcs of the 7th. This he intends to notice 

 in the ' Annales' of the French Entomological Society. 



Mr. R. Meldola, who had lately received numerous notes on ento- 

 mological subjects from Dr. Fritz Miiller, which were of considerable 

 interest, communicated a short paper : — 



Entomological Notes from Brazil. 



1. Persecution of distasteful Butterflies by Birds. — Fritz Midler's 

 proposed extension of the theory of mimicry to the case of distasteful 

 genera, which I had the pleasure of communicating to the Society four years 

 ago (Proc. Eut. Soc. Lond., 1879, p. xx) necessitates the sacrifice of a certain 

 percentage even of uneatable butterflies through the inexperience of young 

 birds, &c. As some reluctance was shown to the acceptance of these new 

 views, owing to the want of direct evidence, I wrote to Dr. Miiller to ask him 

 to make some observations or experiments bearing upon this point, and last 

 year he sent me a specimen of Heliconius eucrate, Hiibn., having a jagged 

 notch broken out from corresponding positions on the two front wings, as 

 though the insect had been pecked at when at rest by a bird (see Ami. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., Dec. 1882, p. 419). Some further observations have been made 

 this year by the same observer, who devoted a week to the observation of the 

 undoubtedly nauseous Acrcea Thalia, Linn., which swarms in vast numbers, 

 and is well known to be the subject of imitation by other non-protected 

 species. Dr. Miiller states that as a result he found more than thirty 

 specimens having the wings notched in a manner that can only be explained 

 by the peck of birds. Some of these examples, of which thirty-six were 

 enclosed in his letter, are herewith exhibited. 



2. The colour of the Pupa of Papilio Polydamas, Linn. — According to 

 the observations of Wood on Pieris rapce, and of Mrs. Barber on an African 

 butterfly, Pajrilio Nireus, Linn., the colour of the pupa of these insects is 

 determined by the colour of the object on which the larva pupates. This does 

 not hold good, however, for all butterflies of which the pupae are differently 

 coloured ; it is not the case, for example, with Papilio Polydamas. The 

 pupae of this butterfly, of which large numbers have been seen by 

 Dr. Miiller, are either green or brown, intermediate colours having never 

 been found. The ground-colour of the larvae living on Aristolochm varies 



