11 



Mr. Meldola then I'ead the following extracts from a letter from Dr. Fritz 

 Miiller to Mr. Charles Darwin, dated from Santa Caterina, Brazil, 27th 

 November, 1877: — 



" My children lately caught on the flowers of Calonyction (sjd. ?) a Sphinx- 

 moth, the proboscis of which is 22 centimetres long. As I think that you 

 would be glad to see this curious proboscis I send it to you. * * -i= =:= 

 During the month of October I have watched for some weeks the butterflies 

 visiting a Lantana near my house, the flowers of which are yellow the first 

 day, orange the second, purple the third day, and falling off on the morning 

 of the fourth. Eight out of eleven species of butterflies [Heliconius apseudes, 

 Colmnis Dido, C. Julia, Dione Juno, Hesperocharis Anguitia, Eurema Leuce, 

 Daptonoura Lyciiiinia, and Callidryas Cipris) never touched an orange or 

 purple flower, limiting their visits exclusively to the yellow ones. Two 

 specimens of Pieris Aripa (or Elodia?) proceeded in the same way, whilst 

 a third specimen of this Fieris inserted its proboscis indifferently into yellow 

 or orange flowers. Three specimens of Danais Erippus evidently preferred 

 yellow flowers, but sometimes also tried orange flowers, and one of them 

 even once put its proboscis into a purple flower; a fourth specimen of 

 Danais visited yellow flowers only. Lastly, I saw three specimens of 

 HesperidoR, but as I did not catch them, and as the species most closely 

 resemble each other, I do not know whether they belonged to the same 

 species; two visited exclusively yellow flowers, the third indifl'erently 

 flowers of any colour — yellow, orange, or purple. These observations, of 

 which a full account will be published in the 'Archives do Museo Nacional 

 do Rio de Janeiro,' confirm those by Delpino on Rihes aureum and Caragana 

 arborescens. If the flowers lasted but one day the flower- 

 heads would be by far less conspicuous ; if they lasted 

 three days without changing colour, butterflies would lose 

 much time in visiting honeyless, already-fertilized flowers. 

 :;: * * Yesterday I caught, for the first time, the male 

 of a Sphinx-moth which exhaled a strong musk-like odour ; 

 as you know, this is also the case with the males of the 

 European S. convolvuU and S. ligustri ; but nobody has as 

 yet, so far as I know, indicated the odoriferous organ. It 

 is formed by two pencils of hairs situated on the ventral side 

 of the base of the abdomen, and when at rest are perfectly 

 hidden by the scales (hairs ?). 



" I do not remember whether I have already called your 

 attention to an interesting secondary sexual character ob- 

 servable in several species of Callidryas and some other 

 Pierina. The costal margin of the anterior wing is sharply 

 serrated in the males, while it is smooth in the females. In 

 Callidryas Philca some females have the wings smooth, others surruled, but 



Scent-fans of 

 Spliinx-moth. 



