NOTES. 217 



conspicuous flower, such as the Hibiscus and Cosmos, as though to 

 quench its thirst, then away again in greater haste than ever as 

 if to make up for lost time. 



As usual in Colombo, the flights were northwards, but this 

 does not appear to be the case all over the Island, for Major 

 Manders* observed that they followed the coast line, starting 

 somewhere north of Trincomalee and working right round the 

 south coast to Negombo. Major Manders does not record the 

 direction of the flights in the more central portions of the Island, 

 for instance, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Diyatalawa, &c. In Nuwara 

 Eliya and Diyatalawa a westerly direction is taken and this is 

 probably maintained all over the central portion of the Island ; 

 it would therefore be interesting to know the direction taken by 

 flights between the central provinces and the east coast, namely, 

 whether they strike east and join the circuminsular flight or 

 strike west passing over Diyatalawa, Horton Plains, Nuwara 

 Eliya, &c. 



Major Manders, in his interesting notes, deals with the direction 

 of flight of those proceeding from Trincomalee to Negombo, «.e., 

 in the maritime regions only, so that we have still to ascertain 

 where the butterflies come from which pass over the central 

 provinces. 



The abrupt manner in which the flight starts is very remark- 

 able. For instance, last November a few straggling Catopsilias 

 were to be seen on the first of that month ; on the following day 

 the flight was in full swing, the numbers gradually increasing 

 until the 2lst, then diminishing to quite a few on the 31st. 

 Before the 2nd November there was no regular flight in one 

 direction. 



In the case of Gatopsilia pyranthe I have carefully observed 

 that the females begin laying their eggs towards the end of the 

 rush, the few straggling females being then responsible for the 

 next or February flight. In November of last year oviposition 

 commenced towards the end of the month and is still going on 

 up to the time of writing, as an examination of the food plant 

 {Cassia occidentalis) will show. 



The question now arises — When and where are the eggs laid 

 which produce the i^'i^olific Novemher flight? The eggs laid 

 towards the end of November flight are undoubtedly responsi- 

 ble for the February flight — the period noi-mally occupied from 

 egg to imago being from three to four weeks. (In countries 

 having a winter many insects hibernate, but I have not observed 



* Trans. Eutom, Soc, London, lUUl, No. 26. 



