"The Mantis was sitting on a grass-stem, holding the Cicada on its back, and biting it on the hind wing, which you will see is damaged in consequence. My attention was attracted to it by the unusually loud noise the Cicada was making." This narrative is also interesting as showing that the stridulation of the Cicada is also used as a sign of alarm or pain, and is not of a purely sexual or aesthetic character.—Ed.
Southerly Extension of the East African Butterfly Fauna.—Durban, the well-known port of Natal, is the home of several good lepidopterists, the name of Col. Bowker being a host in itself; consequently the butterflies of that neighbourhood have been well and persistently collected, and there is little chance of prominent species being overlooked. Of late years several species hitherto considered as part of the Mozambique fauna have appeared at Durban, such as Godartia wakefieldii, which I took myself when at that spot in 1896. Last year Dr. Dimock Brown, who was in England, called and showed me a specimen of Crenis rosa, originally described from Delagoa Bay, which he had captured in the Durban Botanical Gardens; and now Mr. A.T. Millar informs me that this year at least a dozen specimens of that species have been captured about Durban, and in such splendid condition as to prove they had but recently emerged in the imago condition; so that C. rosa may now definitely be included in the Natal lists. The route followed is evidently the coast forest belt, which extends from Delagoa Bay to and beyond Natal, and further visitors may be expected.—Ed.
