222 THE COLOURATION OF INSECTS 



in headlong flight through the forest suddenly arrest its 

 course and dally awhile with' an Amauris niavius, and it 

 was impossible to resist the conclusion that the swallow- 

 tail had for a moment mistaken the Amauris for its own 

 female of the form hippocoon, which closely resembles 

 Amauris. Eltringham ^ has described an elaborate appar- 

 atus in male Amauris which I was fortunate enough to 

 observe being actually used in courtship by A. psyttalea, 

 on Bugalla Isle, in July 1912. A male was flying about 

 after a female, which presently alighted on a dead flower 

 spike of a common herb about two feet high. She sat 

 almost at the top, vertical, with head upwards and wings 

 outspread, and remained perfectly still while the male 

 hovered a few inches above her head with a peculiar 

 flutter causing him to rise and fall a little. Every now 

 and then the flaps at the extremity of the body were widely 

 everted at right angles to the body, and a large white 

 brush-like structure was most energetically protruded and 

 as rapidly withdrawn. I watched this for a minute or 

 two, and then, to my surprise, for I had made no move- 

 ment, the female suddenly flew away as if the performance 

 had not appealed to her, and the male followed. ^ 



The importance of the scent emitted by male butterflies 

 was first recognized by Fritz Muller,^ who described certain 

 scales on the wings especially formed for producing scent. 



A very curious and unusual occurrence was noted on 

 Bugalla on October 25, 1912, A male of -a small and 

 abundant Syntomid moth {Epitoxis albicincfa) was on a 

 grass stem, and a male of the common butterfly Acraea 

 terpsichore form ventura, in a state of great excitement, 

 was endeavouring to effect union with the moth, passing 



^ Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1913, part ii, p. 399 et seq. ; also 1915, part i, 

 p. 152 et seq. 



^ For observations showing the relation of these anal tufts to the 

 " brands " on the hind wing, see Lamborn, Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1911, 

 p. xlvi ; 1912, p. xxxiv ; 1918, p. clxxii. 



» Jen. Zeit., vol. xi. p. 99; Trans. Ent. Soc, 1878, p. 211. 



