( xlvii ) 



Kilimandjaro, an account of what appears to be a very 

 remarkable instance of insect mimicry. These are his words : 

 ' At first sight I saw a plant with violet blossoms and red to 

 orange buds or seed-pods — the pods being at the tip and 

 flowers lower down. The whole thing shaped like a long 

 stalk of hyacinth. There were several such stems, each with 

 the " flowers " and " pods " regularly and naturally grouped 

 at proper intervals round the stems. 



' I plucked the " hyacinth," and each flower and pod 

 hopped or flew away. They were grasshopper-like creatures 

 with feathery wing-cases (the larger being about 1 inch long), 

 and they had so arranged themselves round a bare stalk — all 

 head-downwards — that the intervals between individuals, 

 groups, and shading from violet to orange were perfectly 

 observed. Cases of wonderful imitative markings in indi- 

 viduals are limitless here, but this is the first collective arrange- 

 ment of creatures, of various colours, shapes and sizes, into 

 one definite system that I have ever seen or heard of. Several 

 of us examined them after I had pointed out these " flowers " 

 growing on the banks of the Tsavo River.' 

 " I am, sir, 



" Yours faithfully, 



" F. G. Stokes." 



Relationships in the Genus Heliconius. — Dr. H. 

 Eltringham gave a short abstract of his paper on " Specific 

 and Mimetic Relationships in the Genus Heliconius" illustrated 

 by several coloured lantern slides. He pointed out that 

 previous work on this remarkable genus had taken into 

 account external features only, and that anatomical study 

 revealed some interesting points in connection with the 

 specific relationships. Though the structure of the male 

 armature was not in every case so valuable an aid as in the 

 genus Acraea, yet it did show many remarkable features, 

 which, taken in conjunction with gradations of pattern, 

 supported the view that the number of good species in the genus 

 should be reduced by about 50 per cent. Illustrations of 

 certain remarkable intermediates from the Tring collection 

 showed that there could be very little doubt that the whole 



