832. ; BUTTEFtFLIEa 33 



this, liowever, as the entomologist is aware, is to some of our 

 beetles a delightful fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongylur.. 

 attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in 

 my hand. We here see in two distant countries a similar rela- 

 tion between plants and insects of the same families, though the 

 species of both are different. When man is the agent in intro- 

 ducing into a country a new species, this relation is often 

 broken : as one instance of this I may mention, that the leaves 

 of the cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford food to 

 such a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near 

 Rio are untouched. 



During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of insects. 

 A few general observations on the comparative importance of 

 the different orders may be interesting to the English entomolo- 

 gist. The large and brilliantly-coloured Lepidoptera bespeak 

 the zone they inhabit, far more plainly than any other race of 

 animals. I allude only to the butterflies ; for the moths, con- 

 trary to what might have been expected from the rankness of the 

 vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer numbers than in 

 our own temperate regions. I was much surprised at the 

 habits of Papilio feronia. This butterfly is not uncommon, and 

 generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high flier, 

 yet it very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On tliese 

 occasions its head is invariably placed downwards ; and its wings 

 are expanded in a horizontal plane, instead of being folded verti- 

 cally, as is commonly the case. This is the only butterfly which 

 I have ever seen, that uses its lesrs for runninof. Not beina 

 aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I cautiously 

 approached with my forceps, shufl^ed on one side just as the in- 

 strument 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 



* Mr. Doubleday lias lately described (before tlie Entomological Society, 

 March 3rd, 1845) a peculiar structure in the -wings of this buttertiy, which 

 seems to be the means of its making its noise. He says, " It is remarkable 

 for having a sort of drum at the base of the fore wings, between the costal 

 nervure and the subcostal. These two nervures, moreover, have a peculiar 

 screw-like diaphragm or vessel in the interior." I find in Langsdorff 's 

 travels (in the years 1803-7, p. 74) it is said, that in the island of St. Cathe- 

 rine's on the coast of Brazil, a butterfly called Februa Iloftmanseggi, makes 

 a noise, when flying away, like a rattle. 



