The Zoologist — August, 1870, 2267 



on the leaf being apparently a patch of bird's dung ; when it moved, one saw 

 immediately what it was. The other is similar in colour and behaviour, but 

 seems to belong to a different genus, and the resemblance to the droppings of a 

 bird is not so completely deceptive. These would appear to be instances of 

 protective mimicry, and as such will perhaps be of interest to you. I have 

 another example, almost if not quite as evident : I had a caterpillar brought me, 

 which, being mixed by my boy with some other things, I took to be a bit of 

 moss with two exquisite pinky-white seed-capsules ; but I soon saw that it 

 moved, and examining it more closely found out its real character : it is covered 

 with hair, with two little pink spots on the upper surface, the general hue being 

 more green : its motions are very slow, and when eating, the head is withdrawn 

 beneath a mobile fleshy hood, so that the action of feeding does not produce any 

 movement externally ; the shape is oval, and the edges are fringed with tufts of 

 hair : it was found in the limestone hills at Busan, the situation of all othera 

 where mosses are most plentiful and delicate, and where they partially clothe 

 most of the protruding masses of rock ; I placed it in spirit, but it has become 

 shrunken and turned to a dirty yellowish colour. Such things, however, require 

 to be seen alive in order to properly appreciate the close resemblance they bear 

 to the particular objects they resemble." 



Mr. De Grey mentioned that he had often been struck by the resemblance 

 of the caterpillar of Melitaea Cinxia to the flower of the plantain upon which it 

 feeds, whilst the pupa resembled the seed of the same plant. 



Mr. Albert Miiller exhibited some galls on Ammophila arundinacea, found 

 last autumn by Mr. J. Traill about two miles north of Aberdeen ; they 

 occurred rather abundantly on stunted specimens, one gall on each plant. The 

 gall consisted of the imbricate closely-sheathed leaves of a top-shoot, which 

 contained a single longitudinal narrow cell, from two to three lines long, the 

 upper part of which was pierced by the escaping insect. The insect, however, 

 had not yet been detected. 



The Secretary exhibited a large woolly gall of the oak and a number of 

 living specimens of Cynips ramuli which had emerged therefrom. The gall 

 was found on the 24th of June, at Idsworth, near Horndean, by Sir J. Clarke 

 Jervoise, Bart., who wrote respecting it as follows : — 



" My attention was yesterday called to what T thought was a ball of sheeps' 

 wool in a meadow where there were no sheep, and I placed it under a glass 

 clock-shade for security. This morning I found the clock had stopped, and a 

 quantity of flies were in the case and in the works of the clock. I never 

 happened to have seen a similar growth on the oak, a sprig of which is 

 visible in the woolly gall, and I have sent some of the flies in spirits. There 

 are more hatched out in the box since I placed the oak-gall in it." How many 

 specimens of the Cynips hatched in the clock-case did not appear, but the box 

 e.xhibited was found to contain upwards of eighty. 



