PREFACE. 



India, the land of sunshine, is a land of Butterflies ; for, though in the arid plains of 

 the north insect-life languishes during the dry months, it revives marvellously when the periodic 

 rains set in ; and in the moister parts of the country, especially to the east and south, and in 

 the warm valleys of the hilly regions, the amazin"; numbers of Butterflies and other beautiful 

 insects cannot but strike the most unobservant. In one of his charming essays on tropical nature, 

 Professor A. R. Wallace has remarked that, although in tropical countries individual flowers 

 attain to a size and brilliancy of colouring unknown in temperate climates, it is merely in the 

 individual flower, and not in general effect, that the products of tropical climes excel. There 

 is nothing in tropical landscapes, for instance, that can compare with the heather and gorse of 

 our own country, or with the gorgeous carpeting of the alpine valleys, ever moist with the 

 melting snows. But in insect-life it is otherwise ; both in size and beauty of individuals, and 

 in prolific luxuriance of numbers, the tropics easily bear off the palm ; the largest and most 

 beautiful of European Butterflies sink into insignificance beside the Ot nithoplei-a, Morpho 

 and Thaiiinantis of the tropics ; while, perhaps, few sights in nature are more strangely 

 beautiful to the traveller in these Eastern valleys than the patches of damp sand which may 

 be found in torrent-beds in the forests literally carpeted with Butterflies of every hue, closely 

 packed together, busily inbibing the moisture from the sand, and, again, as startled by the 

 approach of an intruder, they rise expanding into a cloud of gorgeous colours of every hue- 

 The difficulty in securing rare species is, in such localities, literally the difficulty of singling 

 them out of a crowd. 



The large size, the quaint shapes, and the dazzling brilliancy of the colouring of many of 

 the Indian Butterflies have made them favourite objects of observation and often of collection ; 

 but, though collections are frequently made or purchased, comparatively little has been done 

 here towards investigating the life-history of these beautiful creatures, or towards improving 

 the opportunities offered by such a study of gaining light on the scientific questions and 

 problems of zoology- 



The study of Entomolgy is not merely an interesting recreation for those who can find 

 leisure and opportunity to pursue it, but, even when restricted to Butterflies only, it offers a 

 field for scientific enquiry of the highest importance, in connection especially with the origin 

 of species and other cognate questions. Putting aside the various stages of egg, caterpillar, 

 and chrysalis, through which all Butterflies pass, and in which opportunities for study are ample, 

 the perfect insect, as it emerges from the chrysalis, exhibits variations at least as numerous and 

 important as those of other classes of living organisms, while the short duration of its life, and 

 the quickly succeeding generations, offer facilities for tracing the course of such variations, and 

 thus deducing the causes which govern them, perhaps unrivalled in the whole field of nature. 

 These variations, though possibly traceable ultimately to the same causes, may be grouped 

 under several heads. It must not be forgotten that variety is in a certain sense universal, for no 

 two individuals are really absolutely alike ; but numerous individuals are to be found so closely 

 resembling each other that, to the naked eye, no difference is traceable ; or, if traceable, the differ- 

 ences are so slight as to leave no room for doubt, even if other evidence were wanting, that the 

 individuals are derived from the same parental stock ; or, in other words, belong to the same 

 pecies. It this close similarity of individuals were constant in each species there would be no 



