414 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall on " In the few specimens of Amauris echeria that I tried I found that no juice was emitted, but they had a nauseous taste and a strong smell, which reminded me somewhat of that emitted by many Goccinellidx, But it was L. chry-sippus which showed mo the futility of trying to arrive at any definite conclusions from this line of research, for it emits neither juice nor smell, and I could detect no trace of any taste, unpalatable or otherwise, but the tissues have a somewhat soapy feel to the tongue, which I noticed in A. echeria and some of the Acrreas. The same may be said of Mylotliris agatldna, though from its conspicuous colouring, slow flight, and wide dispersal, I feel sure it is an inedible species. ^^ Malvern, Feh. 21, 1897. — Aera'a horta exudes a bitter yellow juice from the thorax when it is injured, and this juice permeates the costa of the fore-wing. The head and abdomen do not appear to me to have any unpleasant taste. Trimen refers to their smell, but my smelling powers are not sufficiently acute to detect it. "Malvern, May 14, 1897, — Ahena amazoula feigns death most persistently ; it has an unpleasant taste and strongf smell not unlike that of the Coccinellidfe." 28. Guy A. K. Marshall's Proof of Seasonal Changes in Soutu African Butterflies of the Genus Precis. (E. B. P.) A. Tntroduetion. The attempt will be made in the following section of this memoir to explain these astonishing changes as due to the adai)tation of a moderately distasteful and protected genus in two directions — towards conspicuous warning colours in the generations of the wet season, the time when insect-food is abundant; towards procryptic conceal-ment in the pressure and scarcity of the dry season. Facts which require for their interpretation the hypothe-sis of adaptation in the direction of conspicuousness will be brought forward, much use being made of the conclu-sive proof only recently obtained by ]\Ir. Marshall, by breeding the one from the other, that Precis simia is the wet phase of P. antilo'pe. The distinct habits and stations of the two phases, their relation to otlier seasonal forms of butterflies, the observed
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