INTRODUCTION civ 



while some are typical kershawi. Eggs laid by the same female may produce both 

 forms and intermediates. 



V. atalanta has only been found on the island of Hawaii, where it is sometimes 

 abundant in the mountain forests. It was not noticed by Mr Blackburn during the 

 period of his collecting, and is probably a recent arrival. It is quite doubtful whether it 

 is a natural immigrant at all, and we suspect it may have been introduced by man. It 

 is at least remarkable that in the past i8 years it should not have spread to the other 

 islands. We have found it very numerously in Olaa, Hawaii, flying freely even in the 

 heavy rains of that rainy district, and visiting the flowers of Rubus. Sometimes also it 

 was attracted at night to the lights in the house. It is abundant too in the Kona district. 



V. taviuieamea is by far the most interesting of the few Hawaiian butterflies, being 

 found throughout the forests of all the islands, and at times it is even seen in gardens 

 in Honolulu. Such visits, however, are accidental, and usually occur during or after 

 stormy weather in the winter months. The butterfly itself is remarkable for the great 

 variation of the under side of the wings, whereas the coloration of the upper side varies 

 but little. The sexes are easily distinguished by the difference in colour of some of the 

 small spots in the black apical part of the front wings, these spots being pure white in 

 the female. The flowers of Broussaisia are often very attractive to this butterfly, as are 

 those of an introduced Rtibus, but more often it is found feeding on the exuding sap of 

 Acacia koa, Myoporum, and other common forest trees. Having a very powerful flight 

 it is sometimes met with far from its usual haunts, as for instance on the tops of the 

 highest mountains or near the sea-coast. The caterpillars are very variable, being some- 

 times green or purplish or particoloured. When young they fold back a small part of 

 the leaf and thus conceal themselves, but when larger often feed exposed. Their food 

 consists of various urticaceous plants, especially Pipturus albidus, but Urena and other 

 genera are also attacked. On one occasion a female butterfly was observed near the 

 coast at Honolulu ovipositing on young plants of the common malvaceous weed, on 

 which V. cardui is so abundant. By following this female as it flew from plant to jolant, 

 a number of eggs were collected, as they were laid. The caterpillars however, when 

 they hatched out, refused to eat the young growing plants on which they were placed, 

 and, after crawling about these for a day or more, died of hunger. Others from the same 

 lot of eggs, being given leaves of the native ' mamake ' i^Pipturus\ survived. It would 

 therefore appear that the butterfly, when driven from the mountains to the lowlands, 

 where the usual Urticaceae are absent, will select as a food-plant for its caterpillars 

 or rather for ovipositing, one which is freely fed on by allied species of its genus 

 (e.g. V. cardiii), although its own caterpillar is not able to subsist on this. Possibly 

 the instinct of selecting this malvaceous plant is an ancestral one, still retained, though 

 now fatal to the progeny. 



The chrysalis of V. tatmneamea is occasionally found suspended from the leaves of 

 various trees or plants in the forest, but we have more often found parasitized examples 



u 2 



