234 THE entomologist's record. 



swai'ms of butterflies continue passing over to the south-east for three 

 to five weeks, and must consist of millions upon millions of indi- 

 viduals, comprising many different species and genera. The beautiful 

 tailed green-and-gilded dayflying moth, Irania [Ci/duiion) leilus, also 

 joins in this annual movement." Some of the Uranias have been 

 known as migrants for almost a century. Swainson records {Zoolo<iical 

 Illustrations, 2, vol. iii), under Leilas surinamensis (Uronia leilus), that 

 "the typical species of T^eilus (= Urania) are found in tropical America 

 where they fly with amazing rapidity, and perform, like their proto- 

 types the swallows, annual migrations." Under Leilus hra'^iliensis he 

 quotes from his notebook, that great numbers of this insect were 

 observed for three or four days, from June 12th, 1817, flying past 

 Pernambuco, in a direction from north to south, not one deviated from 

 this course, notwithstanding the flowers that were growing around ; 

 they flew against the wind, which blew rather strongly, and near the 

 ground, but mounted over every tree or other high object which lay in 

 their course, yet their flight was so rapid that not a single specimen 

 could be captured. They flew singly, and some 50 or 60 must have 

 passed the spot opposite the window before midday ; and they continued 

 to pass for three or four days in this manner. It is clear that these 

 insects could not have come from so far north as Surinam, where only 

 the other species (L. surinajnensis) is found, and they certainly do not 

 migrate to the more southern latitude of Rio de Janeiro." In the 

 HamUiinijen der Nederlandschc Entrnndloi/iscJie Vcrerninin;/, 1, p. 75 

 (1850), it is recorded that Heer Verhuell, when he wasaprisonerof warat 

 San Salvador, in All Saints' Bay, on the coast of Brazil, about 1807, 

 witnessed, whilst standing on the high coast at the entrance of the 

 bay, from the opposite island, Itaparica, high above the surface of the 

 water, a dark cloud approaching, which was soon recognised as a swarm 

 of moths. Some, which flew lower than the rest of the army, were 

 captured and proved to be Urania leilus " (probably U. brazilicnsis as 

 in the former case). Otto Friedrich, who lived long in Mexico and 

 Texas, is noticed (Inc. cit., 1854, pp. 91 et seq.) as having observed that 

 every year there is a great migration of lepidoptera from the State of 

 Vera Cruz, in Mexico. It begins in April and lasts for three or four 

 weeks; every day from 9 a.m. to noon, fresh troops follow exactly the 

 same direction, the lepidoptera following the eastern slope of the 

 Cordilleras, from Anahuac, somewhat more to the east than in the 

 direction of Orizaba or Ciltalteptle, towai'ds Coft're de Perote or 

 Naucampatepetle, and away northwards. They always fly at the foot 

 of the Cordilleras, and not higher. These migratory insects consist 

 of Urania leilus (probably U. fuhjens), U. niarius, Cram, {^cliiron, 

 Godt., this latter species is a Nymphalid not an Uraniid), and a 

 smaller species, the latter only in small numbers, and, according to 

 Friedrich, of less interest. The two large species commenced their 

 journey somewhere near the foot of Orizaba, or from the region of 

 Cordova, a little further north. When they migrate thence they are 

 quite fresh, and just emerged from the pupa. Friedrich does not say 

 where the smaller species begins its migration. He was not able to 

 ascertain with certainty the goal of this migration, but U. leilus, he 

 says, does not appear to travel further than to the neighbourhood of 

 the Rio Grande in Texas, because the Cidrus trees on which the larva' 

 feed stop there, and the species has not been observed farther north than 



