Notes on Brazilian Entomology. 6lO 



but little from that of the rest of the wings. In Ageronia Ai/>/iinome and Feronia 

 neither odours nor odoriferous organs could be detected. 



Didonis Biblis is, so far as odours are concerned, the most interesting of 

 all butterflies that I know. The male is able to emit as many as three different 

 odours. On seizing a Didonis of either sex, it protrudes on the dorsal side of 

 the abdomen, between the fourth and fifth segments, a pair of hemispherical 

 protuberances, covered with greyish hair-like scales and producing a strong, rather 

 disagreeable odour. The male has a second pair of similar protuberances between 

 the fifth and sixth segments of the abdomen, covered with white hair-like scales. 

 These white protuberances he never exposes when caught; they emit an agreeable 

 odour, comparable to that of heliotrope, and are of so elegant an appearance that 

 they probably serve at the same time as an ornament. A very different musk- 

 like odour is produced by a black spot, which is situated on the under side of 

 the front wings of the male near the base between the median and submedian 

 nervures. This odour is very faint; it is convenient to remove the abdomen be- 

 fore trying to perceive it. I may add that the hind wings of the male also have 

 a very small greyish spot near the base, which is wanting in the female. 



C. Apatura group. 



A distinct odour issues from the tuft of black hairs which distinguishes the 

 hind wings of the male sex of Prepona Laertes and several other allied species. 



Family 3. Lycaenidse. 



It is well known that the males of very many species of TJiecla have a 

 "sexual spot'' on the disc of the front wings, and that sometimes (e. g., in the 

 males of 7". Acmon) the neuration of the wings is greatly altered by the presence 

 of this spot. In the male of T. Atys an unusually strong odour is produced by 

 this "sexual spot", and more or less distinct odours by various other species the 

 names of which I do not know. 



Family 4. Papilionidae. 

 Subfamily i. Pierinse 



The front wings of the male Leptalis Thermesia have a chalky oval spot 

 on their under side, and opposite to this there is a dark-brownish spot on the 

 upper side of the hind wings. Both these spots emit a very strong odour, dis- 

 agreeable to human noses, but probably not so to his females. A similar, though 

 much fainter odour has been observed in the male Leptalis Astynome and L. Melite. 



A very delicious perfume is produced on the upper side of the wings of 

 the male Daptonoura Lycimnia. It is rather faint and often hardly distinguish- 

 able when the butterfly is caught. In this case it may easily be rendered distinct 

 by keeping the living animal for some time with the wings closed. On the whole 

 upper surface of the wings there are, among the ordinary scales, in the males 

 of this species (as in many species of Pier is, Hesfierocharis, Archonias, Pereute 

 &c.), numberless peculiarly-formed odoriferous scales or "plumules", as they were 

 called by Bernard Deschamps. In Daptonoura Lycimnia these "plumules" are 

 club-shaped and fringed with fine hairs at the end. 



