1872.) 251 
large oak tree in a field not a hundred yards from the pit, and there found several 
Tinea misella running on the trunk before their evening’s flight. Their home was 
evidently in some cavity in the trunk opening b>tween the large main roots, and 
very hard it was to secure the swift-footed little moths before they could make 
their escape into it. Doubtless, some fungus was growing in the cavity which 
served them for food; and there was evidently no scarcity, for the moths were 
to be found about the tree for the next fortnight. 
Among them were several specimens (chiefly males) of a yellowish colour (a 
sort of Albino form to which several species of Timea seem liable, notably rusticella 
and ferruginella) ; and, taking this into account, it will easily be believed that I had 
some difficulty in realizing that this was the same species that I had last seen ten 
years before in the spirit vaults at Dublin, on the wonderful “blankets” of fungus 
with which their walls are lined. 
Another old Dublin acquaintance turned up in August,—a specimen of Oino- 
phila v-flava, running among some papers in a public-house. On examining the 
vaults of the brewer to whom the house belonged, I found dead specimens in the 
spiders’ webs, but not in any numbers. A woody fungus growing in one of the 
vaults produced only Tinea fuscipunctella.—Cuas. G. Barrett, Norwich, 16th 
January, 1872. 
Notes on Mimicry.—The subject of mimetic resemblances is one of so much 
importance, that a few words from an entomologist who knows little of it, except 
as it is seen in Great Britain, may yet prove of some interest. 
As far as insects are concerned, mimicry must be considered under two distinct 
heads; mimicry in the imago, and mimicry in the antecedent states. 
Mimicry in the imago again naturally divides itself into three classes, namely : 
1. The simple imitation of inanimate objects. 
2. The imitation of objects dependent on animal life. 
3. The imitation of living beings. 
Examples of the first class abound amongst our Lepidoptera especially,—from 
the simple white Acidalia on the chalk cliffs, to the Noctua with its shut wings 
closely resembling the grey stone or tree trunk on which it sits. Of course the 
Mantide of the tropics show this more perfectly ; yet the protective reason for the 
existence of this group is proved as clearly by innumerable British species. 
Tue second group is best separated from the first, because it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that they did not exist until after the birth of the animals on whose existence 
their mimicry depends. For example, no entomologist could deny the close re- 
semblance between Ciliz spinula, Abraxas ulmata, or Eudryas grata and the excre- 
ment of a bird; it seems a just inference that these species were not called into 
life until after small, flying, and probably insectivorous birds already existed. 
The third class is perhaps of the highest interest of all; here we find one insect 
under some peculiar protection, and others imitating its form, though not possess- 
ing its endowments. The Heliconiw and Danaides of warmer countries are in 
England represented by bees and wasps, whose stings give protection to themselves, 
and indirectly, through mimicry, to other insects also. It would be curious to 
reckon up how many insects in England mimic the wasps and their allies, some- 
times, as in the indolent Trochilia, the protection seems needful enough; at other 
