Mr. E. B. Poulton on distasteful Insects. 359 
All these suppositions would be erroneous. (1) The 
important hypothesis that conspicuous and gaudy colours in 
larvee are attended by qualities rendering their possessors 
inedible is entirely due to A. R. Wallace (Proc. Ent. Soe. 
1867, p. Ixxx). (2) This suggestion received confirmation 
on March Ist, 1869, when papers were read by J. Jenner 
Weir and A. G. Butler (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1869, p. vi); but 
the former paper was by far the more important and attracted 
more attention in the discussion which ensued. Both papers 
subsequently appeared in the ‘Transactions.’ Mr. Butler’s 
paper, which he regards as the almost exclusive authority on 
the subject, records experiments with three species of con- 
spicuous larvee, and contrasts the behaviour of insect-eating 
animals towards them with their behaviour towards less con- 
spicuous species. 
Since that date Mr. Jenner Weir contributed another 
important paper (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1870), Professor Weis- 
mann published many interesting observations (‘ Studies in 
the Theory of Descent,’ part 11. pp. 836-340, English trans- 
lation by Prof. Meldola), and in 1887 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 
pp- 191-274) I brought together all that had been done, with 
many new observations of my own and Mr. J. Jenner Weir. 
A few new notes by Mr. Butler were also included. Experi- 
ments upon considerably over one hundred species or stages 
of insects and other Arthropoda are described, observations 
made by Mr. Butler being recorded in sixteen of these. The 
attention which this small proportion of the total work has 
received is simply due to the fairness of biological writers in 
giving credit to one of the first two experimenters in this 
direction, and not because either the importance of the results 
or the care with which the work was conducted call for any 
special mention. 
Finding that the comparison of all experiments had pro- 
duced many interesting results (recorded in the paper men- 
tioned above), I determined to renew the work in the following 
years, and I was glad to avail myself of Mr. Butler’s help. 
I have continued experimenting up to the present time (I 
even made an experiment yesterday) and have a large body 
of notes. Most of my experiments and all those contained in 
Mr. Butler’s notes were made in 1887, and although they 
have not been published in full, an account of the most inter- 
esting results was read before the British Association at 
Manchester, and is published in abstract in the Report of that 
meeting (pp. 763-765), where Mr. Butler will find his assist- 
ance fully acknowledged. 
If I had no more notes than those supplied by Mr. Butler 
