74 



manni, a portion of which had become petaloid, an instance 

 in support of the view that the floral organs were simply 

 modifications of leaves. The portion of a petaloid nature 

 was thinner, without leaf neuration, and the green chloro- 

 phyll was not present. Mr. Step stated that leaves and 

 bracts close up under the inflorescence were the more usual 

 to be modified in a petaloid direction. 



Mr. Carr exhibited a larva o{ Sinerinthus ocellata kom which. 

 parasites had emerged the previous year, and noted that 

 much of the larval skin still retained its normal green 

 coloration. 



Mr. Adkin remarked upon the unusual abundance this year 

 of Mania manra in Lewisham, and several members reported 

 from various districts that they had also met with the species 

 in some numbers. 



Mr. Edwards exhibited three male and fourteen female 

 specimens of the Papilio mcmnon, and called attention to 

 the sexual dimorphism and to the polymorphic forms of 

 the. female. The series included : J s from Sumatra, ? s 

 (tailless) from Hong Kong, ? (tailed) from Tungu, ? s (tailed) 

 {achates) from Assam, etc. Wallace says : " The polymor- 

 phism is strikingly exhibited by the females — one set of 

 which resemble the males in form, with a variable paler 

 colouring ; the others have a large spatulate tail to the hinder 

 wings, and a distinct style of colouring which causes them 

 closely to resemble P. coon, a species having the two sexes 

 alike and inhabiting the same countries, but with which they 

 have no direct affinity. The tailless females exhibit simple 

 variability, scarcely two being found exactly alike even in the 

 same locality. The J s of the island of Borneo exhibit con- 

 stant differences of the under surface, and may therefore be 

 distinguished as a local form, while the continental specimens, 

 as a whole, offer such large and constant differences from 

 those of the islands, that I am inclined to separate them as 

 a distinct species, to which the name of P. androgens may be 

 applied. We have here, therefore, distinct species, local 

 forms, polymorphism, and simple variability, which seem to 

 me to be distinct phenomena, but which have been hitherto 

 all classed together as varieties. I may mention that the 

 fact of these distinct forms being one species is doubly proved. 

 The males, and the tailed and tailless females, have all been 

 bred from a single group of the larvae, by Messrs. Payen and 

 Bocarme, in Java. I myself captured in Sumatra a J (P. 

 memnon) and a tailed ? (P. achates) under circumstances 

 which led me to class them as the same species." 



