1022 The Zoologist — December, 1867. 



considerable portion of their lives, must depend solely upon this power which they 

 unconsciously possess." 



Mr. A. G. Butler (who was present as a visitor) stated that he had obtained a red 

 or rosy chrysalis of Pieris Rapae, which had undergone its transformation in a piece 

 of scarlet cloth; and pupa? upon glass were generally of a pale slate-colour. 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir said that, whatever might be the explanation, he could speak 

 to the fact that metallic chrysalides were for some reason or other obnoxious to birds 

 and free from their attacks. 



Mr. Bond combatted Mr. Wood's theory; he had bad thousands of pupae of 

 Papilio Machaon, and had often had the brown variety of pupa on a green ground- 

 colour, whilst in some seasons he obtained no brown specimens at all: as regards 

 Pieris Rapae, he had noticed that the pupae of the second brood were generally rather 

 paler than the first brood ;_ but in the same green-house, the doors and wood-work of 

 which were painted white, he had found chrysalides of all the exhibited colours, many 

 of them quite as dark as those shown by Mr. Wood on black surfaces; on the same 

 wall, built of particularly red bricks, he had found all the colours except the red; on 

 the same twig of the common garden rocket, subject to precisely the same external 

 influences, he hud often noticed three or four pupae of Authocharis Cardamines, and at 

 times the twig would produce red, greeu and white varieties, while at other times all 

 the pupae were of the same colour. 



Papers read. 



The following papers were read : — 



" A Revision of the Australian Buprestidaj described by the late Rev. F. W. Hope," 

 by Mr. Edward Saunders. 



" Descriptions of some new Species of Diurnal Lepidoptera," by Mr. W. C. 

 Hewitson. 



"A Monograph of the Genus Thais of the Family Papilionidae," by the Rer. 

 Douglas C. Timius. The following seven species were enumerated and figures of each 

 exhibited : — 



" 1. Thais Cassandra (Boisd. Icon. pi. iii. fig. 1,2; Hiibn. Pap. fig. 910 — 913. 

 T.Hypsipyle, Godt. Pap. Fr. ii. pl.2C, fig. 1,2; larva figured by Boisduval Rambert 

 et Graslin, Coll. Icon. Chenilles Papil. pi. ii. fig. 1 — 3). The larva feeds on several 

 species of Aristolochia : it varies much in colour, but is generally pale reddish, spotted 

 with black. The pupa slate lasts from November to March ; the pupa is reddish 

 brown, the wing-cases yellowish. I have found this species at Cannes and Hyeres: it 

 is of very short duration and very sluggish, frequenting marshy grounds, where it flies 

 lazily from flower to flower, settling with expanded wings. Near Cannes it is very 

 common in some marshy meadows ou the road to Auribeau; at Hyeres it is com- 

 paratively rare; near Horace Veniet's chateau, about ten miles from Hyeres, it is 

 plentiful on a patch of marshy ground. This species usually appears on the wing in 

 March, about the 15th, and after a fortnight few good specimens are to be seen. The 

 time of appearance, however, varies much: in forward seasons it appears in February, 

 hut in 1864 and I80'd it was not on the wing until April. Slight varieties occur, the 

 black markings on the upper side of the anterior wiugs being more or less diffused, 

 and sometimes the ground-colour of these wings is almost white. This was the case in 

 some specimens winch I reared at Oxford in 1861, from larvae collected at Hyeres in 



