g nnol'ALOCEliA MALAYA^A. 



Pup.E.— The pupa of the above, aud also of IT. heUn. Wcstw., a Javaii species, is figured by Horsf. and 

 Moore, ibid., pi. iv., figs. \la and 12. 



The genus Heslia in the east, like the genus Morpho of the western tropics, may be taken 

 as exhibiting what has been described as " excess of wing area," which, with the comparatively 

 small and light body, is more productive of lofty rather than of swift flight. Pettigrew, who 

 has exhaustively treated on the mechanical properties of animal locomotion, has laid down 

 the postulate that "The wing area decreases as the size aud weight of the volant animal 

 increases";* and the same author has not only shown a law of " weight necessary to flight," 

 but also that when the body is Hght and the wings very ample when they are driven at a 

 comparatively low speed (both in insects aud birds), "the reaction elicited by the ascent and 

 descent of the wing displaces the body to a marked extent,"! or, in other words, an enormous 

 expanse of wings or pinions readily explains an irregular flight on the "principle of recoil." 

 This principle applies to large-winged and light-bodied species of Hestia, who though of lofty, 

 are not of swift flight. Bigg describes a Penang species as " a slowly sailing object," which 

 I can corroborate from my own experience ; and Tennent, I writing of the Ceylon species, 

 speaks of its wings "that bend and undulate in the act of flight," by this sentence probably 

 referring to the course of the whole insect. § On the other hand, conflning ourselves to the 

 East, the more robust-bodied I'lipUion'uhv have, as CoUiugwood has truly remarked, " strength 

 of wing and straight headlong course."]] This is particularly the case with the large and 

 heavy-bodied Omithoptcnr, of which 0. hrooleaiia may be taken as an example ; Wallace, its 

 discoverer, not only speaking of its swift flight, but BurbidgelT stating that in that respect 

 its flight resembles that of a bird. 



Probably about sixteen species exist, although some of the described forms may prove 

 to be but varieties of other species. The area over which this genus is distributed includes 

 Continental India, Ceylon, Andaman Islands, Burma, Malay Peninsula, and extending also 

 throughout the Archipelago, including Papua. 



Only two species appear to be found in this fauna. Mr. Bigg remarks that " There are at 

 least three distinct sizes of 'Ghosts' in the Straits." In this enumeration he evidently 

 includes the species of the following genus Idnipsis. 



The food-plants being unrecorded, no knowledge of the geographical distribution of the 

 same can be obtained. 



1. Hestia lynceus. (Tab. I., fig. 2.) 



I'iil>. liDii-t'iis, Drury, 111. Ex. Eut., ii., t. 7, fig. 1 (1778). 

 J,lr„ li/ncca, Godt. Enc. Meth., ix., p. li)5, u. 2 (1819). 



Male and fenialo. Wings semibyaline and more or less fuliginous ; neuration fuscous. Anterior 

 wings above with the following black macular markings : — two contiguous spots above aud a little before 

 centre of cell, and a subi|uudrate costal spot at apex of first sul>costal nervule ; a large irregular spot about 



■■'■ 'Aniuial Loctimotioii,' jx V.'yl. f Ibid., p. ll'J. J Nut. Hist. Ceylon, p. 420. 



§ Wallace speaks admii-iiigly of a species of Hestia at Singapore, '• sailing or rather floating along, and having, to my 

 eye, a far more striking and majestic appearance than even the Moiylios of Brazil." — ' Zoologist,' 1854, p. 4396. 

 II ' Rambles of a Naturalist.' p. 182. '' ' Gardens of the Sun.' p. 200. 



