473 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



been described in the Proc. Royal Society, 1887. It appeared from these 

 experiments that the cocoons were dark brown when the larvae had been 

 placed in a black bag; white when they had been freely exposed to light 

 with white surfaces iu the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Poulton stated that 

 two other species subjected to experiment during the past season afforded 

 confirmatory results. Thus the mature larvae of Eriogaster lanestrls had been 

 exposed to white surroundings by the Rev. W. J. H. Newman, and cream- 

 coloured cocoons were produced in all cases ; whilst two or three hundred 

 larvae from the same company spun the ordinary dark brown cocoons among 

 the leaves of the food-plant. In the latter case the green surroundings 

 appeared to act as a stimulus to the production of a colour which corre- 

 sponded with that which the leaves would subsequently assume. Mr. 

 Poulton further stated that he bad more recently exposed the larvae of 

 Halias inawiana to white surroundings, and had obtained a white and a 

 very light yellow cocoon — far lighter than the lightest of those met with 

 upon leaves. The larva which spun the white cocoon had previously 

 begun to spin a brown one upon a leaf, but upon being removed to white 

 surroundings it produced white silk. 



Mr. Staintou suggested that larvae should be placed iu green boxes, 

 with the view of ascertaining whether the cocoons would be green. He 

 understood that it had been suggested that the cocoons formed amongst 

 leaves became brown because the larvae knew what colour the leaves would 

 ultimately become. 



Mr. Poulton said he felt convinced that the whole process was entirely 

 involuntary, and that the susceptibility had arisen through the action 

 of natural selection. The discussion was continued by Mr. Waterhouse, 

 Dr. Sharp, Mr. M'Lachlan, and others. 



Mr. Klein read " Notes on Ephestia Kuhniella," and exhibited a number 

 of living larvae of the species, which he said had been recently doing great 

 damage to flour in a warehouse in the East of London. 



Mr. A. G. Butler contributed a paper " On the species of the Lepi- 

 dopterous genus Euchromla ; with descriptions of new species in the 

 collection of the British Museum." 



Lord Walsingham communicated a note substituting the generic name 

 Homonyvius for the generic name Ankistrophorus, — which was preoccupied, 



used in his " Revision of the genera Acrolophus and Anaphora,'" recently 



published by the Society. 



Mr. Waterhouse announced that at the December meeting he would 

 exhibit a series of diagrams of wings of insects, and make some observations 

 on the homologies of the veins. — H. Goss, Hon. Secretary. 



PRINTED BY WEST, NEWMAN AND CO., HATTON OA£D£N, LONDON, E.G. 



