1184 The Zoologist— April, 1868. 



Mr. Stainton added that Mr. Darwin would be glad to receive replies to the following 

 further inquiries: — (1), whether sexual attraction or fascination was exercised in 

 the same manner by butterflies which have the wings gaily ornamented on the under 

 side and by those which have dark under sides, as e.g. by Argynnis and Vanessa; 

 (2), whether any and what moths were more brightly coloured in the male than in the 

 female sex ; and (3), whether any and what moths were more conspicuously coloured 

 on the under side than on the upper side of the wings. (In reply to the third query, 

 Mr. Wormald mentioned the geuus Hypopyra). Mr. Darwin was also desirous of 

 acquiring facts bearing on the distinction between sexual and protective colouring iu 

 insects; and of ascertaining the causes which decided the success of one out of several 

 males which were in pursuit of the same female. 



March 16, 1868. — H. W. Bates, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Donations to the Library. 

 The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the donors:— 

 4 Stettiner Entonui!ogische Zeitung,' 1868, Nos. 1 — 3 ; presented by the Entom. Verein 

 zu Stettin. ' Coleopterologische Ilefte,' II.; by the Editor, Baron Edgar von Harold. 

 'Monographic der Scydmamideu Central- und Sud-Amerika's;' by the Author, 

 Dr. L. W. Schaufuss. 



Election of Member. 



Charles Carrington, Esq., of Westwood Park, Forest Hill, was ballotted for, and 

 elected a Member. 



Exhibitions, Src 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a specimen of the larva of a Lepidopterous insect from 

 Brazil, which was described by Mr. Peckolt, of Canlagallo, as being of a social habit, 

 and forming a common cocoon as large as a man's head, within which each individual 

 formed its own proper cocoon. The larva was covered with spines, like a Vanessa or 

 Acroea ; and appeared to belong to one of the Diurui rather than to one of the 

 Bombyces. 



Mr. Stainton directed alteution to the account given by Hen Hartmann, in Slett. 

 Ent. Zeit. 1868, p. 109, of the breeding of Sesia cephiformis, Grapholitha duplicana, 

 Zett. (inlerruptana, H.S.), and Gelechia electella, from gall-like swellings on the 

 twigs of juniper bushes: an examination of the juuiper during the spring would 

 probably lead to the discovery in this country of the larvae of the two last-mentioned 

 species. 



The President announced the proximate publication, by Dr. Getnminger and Baron 

 E. von Harold, of the first pari of a General Catalogue of Coleoptera, intended to in- 

 clude all the hitherto-described species of the whole world : the classification would be 

 based on that of Lacordaire, the species of each genus being arranged in alphabetical 

 order. 



Mr. F. Smith read a paper on ants, extracted from ' The Guardian ' of 1713, and, 

 as the result of an elaborate and amusing criticism thereof, contended that the history 

 of the habits of those insects therein contained, detailed and circumstantial though it 

 were, could not be a record of actual observations, but was chiefly, if not entirely, the 

 offspring of the imagination of the writer.—/. W. D. 



