846 MB. NELSON AKNASDALE ON THE [Dec. 4, 



of great rarity which rich men keep alive in cages in order to secure 

 its eggs, which they set in rings like jewels, and consider to be a 

 most powerful charm against evil spirits of all kinds. These eggs 

 are said to be of a beautiful red colour. 



Remarks. — Professor Poulton has been kind enough to show me 

 some young larvae of Hymenopus bicornis that he has lately received 

 from Mr. Shelford, Curator of the Sarawak Museum, Borneo, 

 together with some Heteroptera to which they bear a very close 

 and detailed resemblance. It is indeed remarkable that any animal 

 should be so highly specialized in two different directions of 

 deception during the lifetime of an individual. The imago of 

 this form, judging solely from dried specimens, may possibly show 

 a likeness in life to a withered flower. Its long white tegmina, 

 with their faint brown markings, may well have this appearance 

 in life, if they are possessed of the flower-like glistening which 

 distinguishes certain parts of the body of the pupa. 



The pupa of the Indian Mantis, Gongylus gongyloides ', the habits 

 of which have been described by Dr. J. Anderson, resembles the 

 Kanchong in swaying its body while waiting for prey, but differs 

 from it in that only the lower surface is coloured like a flower, 

 the back being green, and that the flower-like shape is brought 

 about by the expansion of the thorax. Two varieties of the 

 pupa of Hymenopus itself are known : the one is pink, the other 

 white. Any information as to whether these are seasonal forms, 

 whether they confine themselves to the flowers which they resemble, 

 and whether they are in any way modified by light reflected from 

 their environment, would be of the very greatest interest. Wood- 

 Mason reports 2 two specimens, the one white and the other pink, 

 taken at an interval of six months, apparently from the same- 

 district, in Assam. Mr. R. L. Butler of Selangor tells me that he 

 has taken white specimens, and white specimens only, on the 

 verandah of a bungalow at Kuala Lumpur, on which white lilies 

 were growing in pots. Wallace 3 says that in India the pink 

 variety will settle among any flowers or leaves, and he seems to 

 lay stress on this point in a note which I have received from him. 

 In the figure ' of this insect given in Poulton's ' Colours of 

 Animals ' (p. 74) it is represented as sitting head downwards, on 

 a leaf, with the abdomen and thorax in a straight line ; in all of 

 which points the attitude of the specimen depicted differs from 

 that of mine, though the first is of no great importance. The 

 brown lines on the doi'sal surface of the insect 5 , and the dark spot 

 at the tip of the abdomen, are entirely omitted by the Indian artist. 

 My specimen certainly refused to sit among leaves when it was in 



1 P. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1877, p. 193. 



2 Ent. Soc. London, 1877, p. xsix. 



3 ' Darwinian),' p. 212. 



4 The figure is from a native drawing sent to Wallace by Wood-Mason, from 

 whom the information about this insect, in ' Darwinism ' was also obtained. 



* These lines, and also the black tip to the abdomen, are just as conspicuous, 

 judging from dried specimens, in individuals from other parts of the East as 

 they were in the one observed at Aring. 



