ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETO. 947 



form of protective resemblance may coexist with a most unpleasant taste. 

 Mere size alone may protect a species against certain of its smaller foes. 

 Comparing the ditferent stages in Lepidoptera, unpleasant attributes appear 

 to arise in the larval stage, and they then often pass through the two other 

 stages attended or unattended, in one or both, by warning colours. The 

 most highly specialized protective colours probably also possess value as 

 sexual adornments. 



Considerably more than one hundred species or stages of insects have 

 been experimented on. 



Lepidopterous Larvae, &c.* — Mr. E. B. Poulton sums up the results of 

 his observations during 1886 on Lepidopterous larvae. 



He shows that in the young conditions of Smerintlius and of Sesia there 

 are characters present, many of which, though disappearing in later stages, 

 serve to link together several of the allied genera. 



Special reference is made to the red spots upon certain of the segments 

 of Smerinthis which are considered as due to the modifications of a coloured 

 border in ancestral forms. A new species of Sphinx larva from the Celebes 

 with protective markings, as in Chserocampa, and with certain distinctly 

 ancestral characters, is described. Interesting details are given as to the 

 highly protective specialization which is met with among the Geometrae, in 

 regard to their attitude and colour ; and also as evident from the presence 

 of certain otherwise useless processes on the body. Further mention is 

 made of the defensive structures of the larva of Dicrania with their histo- 

 logical characters. Such defensive reversible glands must be considered 

 as of fairly common occurrence, the Liparidse affording many examples. 

 Further facts are noted with reference to the life-history of Panisciis 

 cepJialotes. Suggestions are made as to the deposition of pigments in the 

 superlicial layer of the cuticle in many larvae immediately before pupation, 

 and upon the hereditary transmission of pink colour in the tubercles of 

 Saturnia carpim. 



Attention is called to the high protective specialization of the imago of 

 Gonoptera lihatrix, where the otherwise conspicuous eyes and antennae are 

 hidden when the insect is at rest. 



The paper also contains remarks upon the advantage resulting from the 

 late emergence of females from the pupa, and upon the greater readiness of 

 larvfe in the younger than in older stages to feed on different plants. It is 

 suggested that carnivorous habits are iaduced by a lack in the supply of 

 the normal vegetable food. 



Mr. Poulton and Dr. Dicey have both noticed the tendency of young 

 larvae to seek the light. Some kept in a glass cylinder congregated always 

 where light was strongest. Larvae also seem to appreciate the influence 

 exerted by the force of gravitation. 



Sound Organs of the Green Cicada.t— Dr. A. H. S. Lucas, after referring 

 to the theory of Landois, mentions the recent defences of the older explana- 

 tion of Eeaumur offered by Prof. Lloyd Morgan and himself. He then states 

 that the stridulating organ of the male Cijdochila Australasise is formed by 

 a specialization of the tergum of the first abdominal and the sterna of the 

 last thoracic and first abdominal segments. A pair of rattle membranes 

 with cbitinous ridges is borne dorsally, and these are moved, to produce 

 the sound, by tendinous slips from the exaggerated abdominal muscles of 

 the two segments involved. Ventrally, on each side, two delicate tense 



* Trans. Eutomol. Soc. Lond., 1887, pp. 281-321. 



t Trans, and Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, xxiii. (1887) pp. 173-8. 



