THE PAIRING OF AGLAIS URTIC^. 209 



started ; she also made one or two very short flights. After what I 

 may call finally settling down, the female moved very little ; she sat 

 in the usual basking attitude on some nettle leaves where the plants 

 were rather dense, so that there was almost as continuous a platform 

 as though she was on the ground. The male was behind her in 

 similar attitude, at first with about half-an-inch of interval between 

 them. I stood some three or four yards away and feared to go nearer, 

 so that the precise movements were in some respects indistinct. The 

 male advanced towards the female by little jerky movements at perhaps 

 ten seconds interval ; the movement was not merely of advance, but 

 was accompanied by a depression of the front part of the insect. This 

 movement was more frequent as the male advanced, the interval 

 between the insect was soon passed, and the male advanced until his 

 head was nearly over the posterior margin of the thorax of the female. 

 The advance at each movement was less, but the depression of the head 

 was more marked as this position was attained. During this process it 

 so happened that the sun became rather obscured several times, so that 

 whether as a result of the failure of heat and light, or merely as an 

 ordinary part of the process, on three occasions when the male had 

 reached an advanced position over the female, she closed her wings 

 over her back, and the male had to retire and did the same, but for a 

 shorter time. That this was a manoeuvre due to failure of sunshine, 

 seemed probable, as it coincided in some degree with the varying 

 brightness, and on one occasion was only partially and momentarily 

 made. I should have noted that as well as the depression of the 

 anterior portion of the body, the male made some special movements 

 of the head, all of which, however, that I could see, was that some 

 paler plumage was shown in the region of his neck, that looked as if 

 there was a twist of the head as well as a lowering or nodding of the 

 head, in addition to the boring movement of the whole body. I 

 managed once or twice to see the antennae pretty clearly during this 

 movement, and they did not appear to tap the female, or take any 

 special share in the procedure. When for the third or fourth time 

 the male had advanced so as to have his palpi about over the middle 

 of the female's thorax, the female suddenly took flight, and the male 

 after her. Almost before I had time to feel disappointed that the 

 process was futile and that I had spent my time watching without 

 result, when the female had in fact flown some two or three yards, she 

 dived suddenly into a small opening amongst the nettles, the male 

 after her. We waited a few minutes and then went to investigate 

 what might have happened. We found, however, that m the place below 

 the orderly nettle tops, some fifteen inches above the ground, there 

 was an inextricable tangle of live and dead nettles and other plants, 

 dead leaves, etc., giving on a small scale a picture of the impenetrable 

 thickets of living and dead material that we read descriptions of as 

 characterising the most inaccessible places in tropical forests and 

 jungles. 



We worked gently, at least at first, and cleared some inches of 

 ground where the butterflies had disappeared, and got a view into the 

 maze all round this, but could not find the flies. We then cleared all 

 round about, and some twelve inches away finally discovered the male 

 butterfly, and immediately after the female. The latter had a portion 

 broken out of a hindwing which was perfect previously, so that I do 



