200 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



since it alights at times on hedges, offering, of course, 

 a better chance of securing specimens. 



As the genus Omphalea is common in Brazil and 

 Guiana, in all probability it affords pabulum to Urania 

 braziliensis and U. leiltis, species whose habitats are 

 Brazil and Cayenne and Surinam, respectively ; for, 

 as MacLeay has remarked, " the minor natural groups 

 of Lepidoptera often keep very constant to the same 

 natural group of plants." Omphalea triandra, which 

 is very widespread in Jamaica, is doubtless also the 

 cradle of the Jamaican Urania sloamis. U. ftdgens, 

 native to Columbia, Central America, and Mexico, cer- 

 tainly lives on arborescent plants of this genus. In a 

 word, the gorgeous Madagascar Chrysiridia madagas- 

 cariensis, the species of the East India isles, and many 

 more, may likewise feed on leaves of seaside Euphor- 

 biaceae. Captain King, in his " Narrative of a Survey 

 of the Coasts of Australia," describes having found one 

 of the insects in immense numbers about a grrove of 

 Pandanus trees, growing on the banks of a stream 

 which empties itself into the sea near the extremity of 

 Cape Grafton on the north-east coast of New Holland. 

 But MacLeay has " little doubt this species fiitted 

 about the Pandani as U. fernandince {boisdtivalii) does 

 about Coccoloba, while its eggs and larvae might have 

 been found on the neighbouring Euphorbiacese." 



