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THE ENTOMh^©GIS' 



Vol. XLVIII.l JULY, 1915. FNo. 626 



A SWARM OP BUTTERFLIES IN SARAWAK. 

 By J. C. MouLTON, F.E.S. 



(Curator of the Sarawak Museum.) 



On January lOfch a great flight of butterflies passed over the 

 Museum grounds here in Kuching. I noticed several in the 

 grounds between 1 and 2 p.m., but did not take particular notice 

 of them until after 3 p.m., when I saw they were very much 

 more numerous. 



Seven individuals were caught ; they proved to be Cirrochroa 

 emalea, Guer (long known as hajadeta, Moore), a pretty chestnut- 

 brown Nyraphaline, on the wing not unlike our High Brown 

 Fritillary in England. They all flew in the same direction, 

 viz. to tiie west-north-west, keeping fairly low, i. e. low enough 

 to be impeded by belts of trees, houses, &c. ; at one spot I 

 counted, roughly, one hundred and eighty pass over a fifty-yard 

 stretch of path in four minutes — 3. 20 to 3.24 p.m. They began 

 about 1 p.m. and lasted till 4 p.m. ; with them was an occasional 

 pair of Eiiplona diocletianus loivi, and once I saw a male Papilio 

 memnon flying among them in the same direction, but I doubi; 

 if either species belonged to the swarm. Like myself, I expect 

 they were out to see what was up ! 



The prevailing wind was N.N.W., but only very slight; the 

 afternoon rather cloudy ; the day generally somewhat cool after 

 rain in the night. 



My clerk told me they were not nearly so numerous this 

 time as on a former occasion which the late Mr. Shelford de- 

 scribes.* The interesting points about his record are : (i) that 

 his swarm was noticed over exactly the same spot ; (ii) within 

 two days of the present record, i. e. on January 12th, not the 

 10th, but twelve years ago; (iii) it was the same species ; (iv) 

 flying in the same direction ; and (v) Mr. Shelford notes that 

 the north-east monsoon that year, October, 1902-Jauuary, 1903, 

 had been particularly mild, only 39.45 inches of rain, instead of 

 the average of 75.17 inches, having fallen. 



This last year — 1914— has been similarly a remarkal)ly dry 

 year, only 110.06 inches having been recorded instead of the 

 average 160 inches ; this low record is mainly due to the ex- 



* Journ. No. 39, Str. Br., Key. Asiat. Soc. 1903, pp. 203-204. 

 ENTOM. — JULY, 1915. O 



