THE ILLUMINATED MOTH-TRAP. 55 



mentation. The large gaudy yellow butterflies which frequent 

 the yellow flowers of what looked like wild bananas have a very 

 rapid, erratic flight. They are difficult of capture with a net, 

 and one can well imagine that a bird also would have difficulty 

 in catching them. 



Where the profusion of butterfly life is so great as in Brazil, 

 in the variety of species as well as in the number of individuals, 

 there are more opportunities for observations and generalisations 

 than in even the South of Europe. A visitor from the Old 

 World finds his old familiar friends represented by new American 

 cousins bearing a strong family likeness to those he has left 

 behind him. The cabbage butterflies, brimstones, painted lady, 

 tortoiseshell, swallow-tail, and many others, are represented in 

 this manner. 



What struck me most forcibly were the traces I noticed of 

 two opposite and apparently conflicting influences on the orna- 

 mentation of the Brazilian butterflies. One of these influences, 

 which no doubt is that which Darwin called Sexual Selection, 

 leads to brilliant metallic colours, strong contrasts, and general 

 display. The other, which is probably the necessity for con- 

 cealment, tends to sombre colours and resemblance to tbe objects 

 on which the insect settles. In most cases this latter influence 

 can be traced modifying and checking the first. Sometimes 

 one, sometimes the other, obtains the ascendancy. In some 

 cases, as in certain wood butterflies, tbe necessity for conceal- 

 ment seems to have almost suppressed the ornamentation. Yet 

 even in the protective markings may often be traced what looks 

 like a subdued or strugglmg effort towards ornamentation. Of 

 this nature may be many of the smaller eye-spots, markings, 

 and dusky symmetrical curves and lines. Many butterflies 

 which have a habit of opening their wings, turning round at the 

 same time to display their finery, shrink up when danger 

 threatens, and are then wonderfully inconspicuous. In a large 

 number of Brazilian butterflies there is a pronounced tendency 

 to a stripe passing over the upper wing on to the lower one, and 

 symmetrical with it when spread open. This stripe is generally 

 lighter coloured than the ground. 



THE ILLUMINATED MOTH-TRAP. 

 By E. F. Studd. 



Having now had my moth-trap in use for rather over a year, 

 I think it may interest your readers if I give a list of my captures 

 in it during that period, and add a few remarks on its working. 



First, I would never recommend anyone to be discouraged if 

 he fails to succeed with it at first, as, unfortunately, some of 



