Miscellaneous. 271 
On the Acreea cynthius of Drury. By Arraur G. Burtrr, 
Ph,D., F.L.S., &e. 
In Drury’s ‘ Illustrations of Exotic Insects’ (vol. iii. pl. xxxvil. 
fig. 5) a butterfly is figured which has given great trouble to lepi- 
dopterists; the older authors identified it correctly, and then by 
some means a totally distinct species became confounded with it, 
and has ever since borne the name. 
The true A. cynthius is undoubtedly an albino female of A. bonasia 
of Fabricius. An example exactly agreeing with Drury’s figure 
was purchased by the Trustees at the sale of Milne’s collection, and 
may even be the type of Drury’s species (vide Preface to my ‘ Cata- 
logue of Fabrician Diurnal Lepidoptera’) ; indeed, the fact that it 
was entered in the Old Register as Drury’s species and as from 
Sierra Leone, combined with the fact that it closely agrees with the 
original figure, seems to make this well nigh a certainty. 
This point therefore being satisfactorily settled, it becomes 
necessary to give a name to the common yellow-banded species 
allied to A. cabira, which has hitherto wrongly borne the name of 
A, cynthius? in the Museum collection as well as in all others, and 
has been well figured under that name by M. Charles Oberthiir 
(‘ Etudes d’Entomologie, xvii. pl. i. fig. 5, 1893). I think one 
cannot do better than call it A. Oberthiirii, as a slight recognition 
of the services rendered to entomology by the numerous admirable 
coloured illustrations published by that lepidopterist. 
Note on the Protoplasmic Connexion of Lasso-cells in Physalia. 
By Serrano Goro. 
In view of the facts that have been brought out on the subject, 
there are, as it seems to me, three possibilities in the mechanism by 
which the cnidoblasts are discharged. One is to suppose that the 
stimulation of the protoplasm of the lasso-cells by foreign bodies 
coming in contact with the cnidocil causes it, or, more accurately 
speaking, its muscular portion, to contract, and brings about the 
discharge of the enidoblast; another is to suppose that the contact 
of the cnidocil with foreign bodies is transmitted as a sensation to 
the ganglionic cells of the subepithelial layer, and that from these 
cells a new impulse goes out to the lasso-cells, and causes the latter 
to discharge. This, however, is regarded by von Lendenfeld (Zeitschr. 
f. wiss. Zool. Bd. xxxviil. p. 366, ff.) as highly improbable. A third 
way is that the stimulation of the enidocil be transmitted to the sub- 
epithelial ganglionic cells, and there converted into a reflex, which 
causes the discharge of lasso-cells. We may, however, suppose that 
the stimulation proceeds from the sensory cells instead of from the 
enidocils. Considering the fact that a mere contact with inert 
foreign body, such as a grain of sand, does not bring about the 
