NOTES AND QVEBIES. 89 



Dr. Gregory is such a good observer that we can only accept the facts 

 he gives, but at the same time I have never noticed the correspondence 

 myself when collecting butterflies either in the Malay Peninsula or in South 

 Africa. There is probably here a partial but not absolute rule in the 

 appearance of these insects, and, though I cannot support it from my own 

 experience, it would be most interesting and valuable to obtain the observa- 

 tions and opinions of other tropical field entomologists. 



Lord Walsingham in 1885 advocated parallel views on " some probable 

 causes of a tendency to melanic variation in Lepidoptera in high latitudes." 

 In discussing the probable explanation of the white covering of many arctic 

 and alpine mammals and birds, and the dark hue of many lepidopteral species 

 in the same habitats, he accepted the views which were at least enunciated 

 by Craven in 184G as explanatory of the first phenomenon, which accounts 

 for the same by the well-known fact of white being a bad radiator of solar 

 energy, and white-covered animals thus being able to retain their heat to 

 the greatest advantage. The dark insects, on the contrary, are considered to 

 have their advantage in being better able to absorb the solar radiation. — Ed. 



MOLLUSCA. 



Distribution of Worm- eating Slugs. — As there appeared in the 

 November number of ' The Zoologist ' a note regarding the distribution of 

 worm-eating Slugs (Testacellce), it might be interesting to record that these 

 animals are found here, often in considerable numbers. I might mention 

 that here they are chiefly found in the gardens near the sea. — Alec Gold- 

 ney Headley (Portchester, Hants). 



