xlix 



living objects, confining the term "protective resemblance" to 

 those instances in which assimilation to stones, sticks, dead 

 leaves, &c., exists. 



An extended memoir on protective coloration in Nature, 

 especially with reference to insects, by A. B. Wallace, has 

 appeared in ' Macmillan's Magazine,' September, 1877 ; and has 

 been reprinted in the 'American Naturalist.' 



An abstract of Dr. Fritz Mtiller's memoir on mimicry in 

 the genus Leptalis, alluded to in my last year's Report, has 

 appeared in the 'American Naturalist,' September (vol. x., 

 No. 9). 



An interesting instance of the striking simulation to flowers, 

 exhibited by living individuals of one of the Indian MantidcE, 

 Gongylus gongylodes, has been recorded by Dr. J. Anderson, in 

 the ' Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' August, 1877. 

 It is, however, only the under surface of the animal that exhibits 

 this resemblance to a flower : the leaf-like expansion of the 

 prothorax, instead of being green, is of a clear, pale lavender- 

 violet colour, with a faint pink-bloom margin, and a blackish 

 brown spot in the centre, thus resembling the opening of a 

 tube in the middle of the corolla of a flower. A favourite 

 position of the insect is to hang head downwards amongst a 

 mass of green foliage, remaining motionless, or occasionally 

 swaying about like a flower touched by a gentle breeze ; and 

 while in this attitude, its fore limbs banded violet and black, and 

 drawn up in the centre of the corolla, render the simulation of 

 a papilionaceous flower complete ; and by this disguise act as a 

 decoy to insects, which fly directly into the serrated, sabre-like 

 raptorial arms of the simulator. 



Anatomy and Physiology. 



A valuable introductory work on the general structure of 

 insects has been published by Dr. Vitus Graber (small 8vo, 

 pp. 403, with 200 excellent original woodcuts), under the title, 

 ' Die Insekten, Erster Theil. Der Organismus der Insekten.' 



Two articles on the development of the river crayfish, by 

 Reichenbach, appear in Siebold and KoUiker's ' Zeitschrift' 

 (vol. xxix.) ; and have been abstracted by T. J. Parker, in the 

 Quarterly Joui'n. Microsc. Science (Jan. 1878). The investigations 

 of the author are confined to the condition of the animal "in 



H 



