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Show 846 MR. NELSON ANNANDALE ON THE [Dec. 4, of great rarity which rich men keep alive in cages in order to secure its eggs, which they set in rings like jewels, and consider to be a most powerful charm against evil spirits of all kinds. These eggs are said to be of a beautiful red colour. Remarks.-Professor Poulton has beeu kind enough to show me some young larvae of Hymenopus bicornis that he has lately received from Mr. Shelford, Curator of the Sarawak Museum, Borneo, together with some Heteroptera to which they bear a very close and detailed resemblance. It is indeed remarkable that any animal should be so highly specialized in two different directions of deception during the lifetime of an individual. The imago of this form, judging solely from dried specimens, may possibly show a likeness in life to a withered flower. Its long white tegmina, with their faint brown markings, may well have this appearance in life, if they are possessed of the flower-like glistening which distinguishes certain parts of the body of the pupa. The pupa of the Indian Mantis, Gongglus gonggloid.es ',the habits of which have been described by Dr. J. Anderson, resembles the Kanchong in swaying its body while waiting for prey, but differs from it in that only the lower surface is coloured like a flower, the back being green, and that the flower-like shape is brought about by tbe expansion of the tborax. Two varieties of tbe pupa of Hymenopus itself are known : the one is pink, the other white. Any information as to whether these are seasonal forms, whether they confine themselves to the flowers which they resemble, and whether they are in any way modified by light reflected from their environment, would be of the very greatest interest. Wood- Mason reports 2 two specimens, the one white and the other pink, taken at an interval of six months, apparently from the same district, in Assam. Mr. R. L. Butler of Selangor tells m e that he has taken white specimens, and white specimens only, on the verandah of a bungalow at Kuala Lumpur, on which white lilies were growing in pots. Wallace :i says that in India the pink variety will settle among any flowers or leaves, and he seems to lay stress on this point in a note which I have received from him. In tbe figure * of this insect given in Poulton's ' Colours of Animals ' (p. 74) it is represented as sitting head downwards, on a leaf, with the abdomen and thorax in a straight line ; in all of which points the attitude of the specimen depicted differs from that of mine, though the first is of no great importance. The brown lines on the dorsal surface of tbe insect ', and the dark spot at the tip of the abdomen, are entirely omitted by the Indian artist. M y specimen certainly refused to sit among leaves when it was in 1 P. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1877, p. 193. - Ent. Soc. London, 1877, p. xxix. 3 ' Darwinism,' p. 212. 4 The figure is from a native drawing sent to Wallace by Wood-Mason, from whom the information about this insect in ' Darwinism ' was also obtained. J These lines, and also the black tip to the abdomen, are just as conspicuous, judging from dried specimens, in individuals from other parts of the East as they were in the one observed at Aring. |
