38 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



SATYRIDiE. 



The Satyricl(E have always been associated in my mind with 

 the tradition of a gigantic butterfly that was seen by the former 

 Curator of the Botanic Gardens, Natal, Mr. D. M'Ken, and which, 

 from his description, fitted more closely to the characters of this 

 family than any others. As Mr. M'Ken did not catch the insect 

 it still remains a myth, and is to be looked for in the precipitous 

 ravines of the Inanda Hills, behind Verulam. The species known 

 to me are most conspicuously the " crepuscular " pair, Cyllo Leda 

 and Gnophodes Parmeno. They used to visit my sugar regularly 

 after sunset and in the moonlight. I have bred Cyllo Leda, and 

 found the larvae correspond fairly with the Indian species of Hors- 

 field and Moore. I am not sure whether I have seen the larvae 

 of Parmeno. I took some that differed ver}' slightly from those 

 of Leda, fed on the same food -plant, a broad plaited-leaved grass 

 of woodland habit, and altogether prognosticated G. Parmeno, 

 but they were all ichneumoned, and I did not rear a single 

 specimen, and never found another batch of similar ones. The 

 two insects are so closely congeners that one would imagine the 

 larval differences to be very slight. They are absolutely given to 

 " very shady proceedings," as I never saw them during daylight 

 free on the wing, unless put up when scrambling through dark 

 shaded thickets, on which occasions they settled again almost 

 immediately on the ground amongst dead leaves, &c., which the 

 under side of the wings, especially of G. Parmeno, closely mimics ; 

 C. Leda less so, but still quite enough to make the insect next 

 to invisible when at rest. Both seem to enjoy the hour after 

 sunset ; I have seen ten or twelve dipping about, with the peculiar 

 plunge they make in flight, round and round a little patch of their 

 favourite food-plant, the grass above mentioned, in an open glade 

 under trees. My sugar ahvays attracted them freely, even up till 

 10 or 11 p.m. ; on clear nights I have found C. Leda especially, 

 sipping the sweets I had purveyed for other guests. The under 

 side of G. Parmeno is one of the most lovely studies of greens, 

 greys, and browns in rich and delicate tracery that I am aware of 

 in the insect world ; this butterfly does not vary at all in my 

 experience. 



Cyllo Leda, on the other hand, is so variable in the size, 

 development, and colour of its ocellic spots on both sides of the 

 wings, that it is difficult to get two specimens exactly the same. 



