DEBIS I. 



hollow shells merely. I noticed one larva as it was passing the second moult, 

 and another at the fourth, and the behavior was the same in both cases. As the 

 tails were disengaged from the old skin, they stood apart at a right angle for 

 some time, and in about ten minutes began slowly to approach each other ami 

 get in line with the body. The first movement of the larva was to turn around 

 so as to get at and devour the cast skin. In suspension the figure is very differ- 

 ent from N. Gemma, but is like N. Sosybius, and nearly same as in Satyrus 

 Alojje. (Fig. h.) 



I have taken Portlamlia at Coalburgh, W. Va., as early as 18th May, and 

 fresh examples in June, July, and August. There must here be at least two 

 annual generations, possibly three. If three, the first in May, the second middle 

 of July, the third late in August. 



This is the only species of its genus accredited to the Americas, but under the 

 supposed synonymical name of Lethe, Marshall and De Niceville, in " The Butter- 

 flies of India," describe thirty-four species, which they divide into four groups, 

 principally inhabiting the Eastern Himalayas and Assam. Nothing is said of the 

 early stages of these species, and it remains to be seen from comparison of egg, 

 larva, and pupa, whether either of the groups or any one of the species is really 

 congeneric with Debis Portlandia or not. It is highly probable that they are 

 not, and that Portlandia properly forms a genus by itself. 



Say describes the caterpillar briefly as " downy and mucronate behind," — 

 mucronate, in his glossary, meaning " terminating in a sharp point." Of the 

 chrysalis he says, '' It is angulated, bi-mueronate on the front ; " which is not a 

 correct description, as the head case is without points or processes. Boisduval 

 and Leconte give a fair representation of the chrysalis after Abbot, but the 

 caterpillar is bad as can well be. The description in the text is drawn from the 

 figure and not from nature, and it is said that the two points which surmount 

 the head spring up in the form of ears (s'elevent en form d'oreilles), as indeed 

 they do in the figure. The same authors copy from Abbot's unpublished figin-es 

 what perhaps is the Georgia type of the butterfly, large, with very large and 

 nearly equal ocelli over both wings. 



Note. — Since this paper was printed I have received a letter from Mr. L. UMrich, before mentioned, and 

 to whom I had written to ask if he had observed tlie gamesome habit described by Wr. Gosse. Mr. Ullrich is 

 an experienced collector of lepidoptera ; he is also Clerk of Seneca County, Ohio, and was so engrossed by 

 his ofKcial duties that he could find no time for an earlier reply. Hence this note. The letler says : " I do 

 not recollect of ever seeing I'oythinilia flying antagonistically at other species, but to see them sitting on the 

 side of a tree or slum]) head downward, the wings closed over the back, was a common occuirence. The 

 many butterflies I found in 1.S81 — and I took hundreds of them — were all from an area of about one acre in 

 extent, within a sm.all piece of woods. Here was an open patch on which grew a certain kind of grass, the 

 food of the caterpillars, and joining it was a half acre of open second-growth of hazel, maple, and other trees, 

 from fifteen to twenty feet high. When the sun shone clear it was usual to find a score or more of Portlandia 



