104 



by way of contrast, a bred specimen of the same species 

 from the Essex coast, this being unusually light in colour. 



Mr. H. A. Sauz6 had for exhibition a small collection of 

 Ichneumonidai, all the specimens having been captured, and 

 Mr. Billups congratulated Mr. Sauze on the careful setting 

 and mounting of his captures. 



Mr. Billups announced that he had a collection of birds 

 eggs numbering some five hundred, and comprising about 

 two hundred species, which had been placed at the disposal 

 of members of the Society interested in Oology. A dis- 

 cussion ensued as to the advisability of the Society adding 

 birds' eggs to its collections. 



Mr. Jenner Weir read the following notes on " Mimicry 

 in Lepidcptera," and exhibited many specimens in illus- 

 tration : 



"The exhibition I make this evening illustrates one of 

 the aspects of the phenomenon of Mimicry which has not 

 received the attention it deserves. If a comprehensive view 

 be taken of the Rhopalocera, it will be found that mimicry 

 exists in three out of the four families into which they are 

 divided by the most modern systematists, viz., the Nympha- 

 lidse, Lycasnidse, and Papilionidas ; and that where certain 

 species in a genus are mimics, it is frequently found that 

 other closely allied genera also contain mimicking species. 

 These reflections have arisen in my mind by following out a 

 suggestion made by one of our members, Mr. Tutt, that I 

 should look through my cabinets to find subjects of sufficient 

 interest to bring under the notice of the Society. In the 

 Nymphalinae there is a remarkable mimicking group formed 

 by Hypolimnas , Psetidacrcsa, Euripus, Hestina, and two or 

 three other genera, found in the African, Indian, and Aus- 

 tralian Zoogeographical regions, which well illustrate the facts 

 I propose to deal with. 



" On the present occasion, I shall draw attention to those 

 only from the African region, where the species mimic the 

 two protected sub-families Danainge and Acraeinse. Limnas 

 chrysippus, Linn., is a triniorphic species, the type, the form 

 with white secondaries, L. alcippiis^ and the plainly coloured 

 L. kliigii, without the black tips to the primaries and white 

 sub-apical bar ; all these forms are closely mimicked by a 

 similar trimorphic condition. Of the females only of Hypo- 

 limnas misippiLs, Linn., the similar, character of the names 

 given by Linnaeus shows that he thought them related con- 

 generically. Cramer fell into the same error, and named the 

 form which mimics L. chrysippus, H. diocippus. 



