484 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



panded in a horizontal plane, instead of being folded vertically, as is commonly the 

 case. This is the only butterfly which I have ever seen that uses its legs for running. 

 Not being aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I cautiously approached 

 with my forceps, shuffled on one side as the instrument was on the point of closing, 

 and thus escaped. But a far more singular fact is the power which this species 

 possesses of making a noise. Several times when a pair, probably male and female, 

 were chasing each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me, 

 and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a toothed wheel 

 passing under a spring catch. The noise was continued at short intervals, and could 

 be distinguished at about twenty yards distance. I am certain there is no error in 

 the observation." Mr. Edward Doubleday described before the Entomological Society 

 on March 3, 1845, the peculiar structure of the wings of this butterfly. He says: 

 " It is remarkable for having a sort of drum at the base of the fore-wings, between 

 the costal nervure and the sub-costal. These two nervures, moreover, have a 

 peculiar screw-like diaphragm or vessel in the interior." A similar structure 

 obtains in some species of moths ; and in the zygenid genus Hecatesia, of Australia, 

 the " whiz, whiz," of the male insect, which is like the noise produced by a hurnming- 

 top, may be heard at a great distance. A. feronia, though it travels as far north 

 as Mexico, appears to be most abundant in Brazil. 



Still handsomer, if possible, are the species of Callithea, confined to the Amazonian 

 region, where all the species known, with the exception of two, were captured by 

 Messrs. Bates and Wallace. C. sapphira (male) is the most intense cobalt-blue that 

 can be conceived, so bright as to be all but dazzling to the eye. C. marJcii is purple 

 and orange. C. whitleyii and C. buckleyi are equally striking in their colors, and from 

 their extreme rarity are especially valued in collections. Mr. Wallace says : " The 

 two beautiful butterflies, C. sc^phira and C. leprieurl, which were originally found, 

 the former in Brazil and the latter in Guiana, have been taken by myself on the oppo- 

 site banks of the Amazon, within a few miles of each other, but neither of them on 

 both sides of that river. Mr. Bates has since discovered another species, named after 

 himself, on the south side of the Amazon ; and a fourth, distinct from either of them, 

 was found by me high up in one of the northwestern tributaries of the Rio Negro, so 

 that it seems probable that distinct species of this genus inhabit the opposite shores of 

 the Amazon." 



Precis has the wings more or less falcate at the apex, and some of the species have 

 the hind pair somewhat produced into a tail. They are all natives of Africa and the 

 East Indies. Salamis is also an African genus, the best-known species of which, S. 

 anacardii, is of a beautiful opalescent green tint, the ocelli being surrounded by black 

 rings. In Kallima the upper side of the wings has broad bands of purple and orange, 

 but the under side is brown, and, when folded, has all the appearance of a dead leaf. 

 Mr. Wallace gives a most charming account of this very interesting insect. He says : 

 " This species (K. paralekta) was not uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and I 

 often endeavored to capture it without success ; for, after flying for a short distance, it 

 would enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and however carefully I crept up to the 

 spot I could never discover it till it would suddenly start out again, and then dis- 

 appear in a similar place. At length I was fortunate enough to see the exact spot 

 where the butterfly settled ; and, though I lost sight of it for some time, I at length dis- 

 covered that it was right before my eyes, but that in its position of repose it so closely 

 resembled a dead leaf attached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive the eye even 



