68 



PSYCHE. 



[April iSgi. 



Green butterflies. — -"Grant Allen shows 

 that, while greenish flowers are among the 

 oldest, really green flowers are the most re- 

 cently developed of all and among the most 

 conspicuous. Very much the same thing is 

 true of Lepidoptera. Pale green moths, like 

 Actias. Geometra, and Pachyarches, are pro- 

 tected by their colouring, which is common 

 to both sexes, and are quite hidden when 

 nestling among the leaves. Such seems also 

 to be the case with Lehera eryx, a lycaenid 

 which is greenish on the underside, and may 

 possibly be the case with some Catopsilias. 

 But bright metallic-green is, I think, the lat- 

 est developed colour among butterflies, and 

 decidedly the most conspicuous. No one who 

 has not seen it can imagine the brilliancy of 

 Arhopala farqukarii.'ox Ornithoptera brook- 

 eana in the greenest jungle. The brightest 

 of the metallic-blue butterflies look dim be- 

 side them. It may be confidently asserted of 

 all such butterflies that, unless the species is 

 protected, only the male is green. The pro- 

 tected Ornithopteras have sometimes assumed 

 green colours as well as golden and orange, 

 and the female shares in this useful ornamen- 

 tation to some extent. In non-protected but- 

 terflies the green is confined to the upperside 

 and is quite invisible except during flight. 

 In the Lycaenidae it is found in many Zep- 

 hyri, in some Poritias and Massagas, in a 

 few Arhopalas, and in Lampides marakata 

 a rare butterfly [ discovered in the Malay 

 Peninsula and named after its emerald tint 

 above. Among all these, whenever the fe- 

 male is known, it is blue, orange, black, vio- 

 let, or any other colour but green. The con- 

 servative and, in butterflies, unadorned sex, 

 has not yet acquired the latest development 

 in colours. It is also remarkable that the 

 green colours seem to occur where the genus 

 is most dominant. The Malay Peninsula and 

 Borneo form the great centre of development 

 of the genera Arhopala and Lampides, and 

 it is there that most of the green species 

 occur. The outlying Arhopalas, those of the 

 North-West Himalayas, and the Timorian 

 islands, are all blue. In Zephyrus, the green 



species are found only where the genus is 

 best represented and most vigorous. Zephy- 

 rus fiavo, a species found in the Bhutan and 

 Assam hill-ranges, remote from the regular 

 habitat of the genus, has, I discovered, the 

 male blue and greatly resembling allied fe- 

 males from the Western Himalayas. The 

 green and orange Ornithopteras also occur 

 only in the heart of the Ornithoptera region. 

 These remarks on green butterflies also ap- 

 ply in some degree to certain other unusual 

 colours of great brilliancy, such as the shin- 

 ing coppery gold of Ilerda brahma., and the 

 fiery red of Thamala marciana. It ought to 

 be borne in mind that such colours must 

 never be ascribed to a female without careful 

 examination." IV. Dokerty (Journ. Asiatic 

 soc. Bengal, v. 58, pp. 416-417). 



The habits of Brachytrypus, the huge 

 desert cricket of the Mediterranean region, 

 have only recently been studied by A. Forel, 

 although, excepting the mole crickets, it is 

 the largest known European form. The rea- 

 son appears in the fact that it is a nocturnal 

 insect, remaining in its burrows by day and 

 even closing the entrance to the same (al- 

 though it is three or four centimetres in di- 

 ameter) to an extent of several centimetres, 

 leaving only a little sand heap to mark its 

 place. Dr. Forel discovered them by mark- 

 ii g the spot where he saw and heard them 

 chirping lustily in the dusk, and the next 

 morning detected the heaps, carefully remov- 

 ing which the burrows were found. These 

 extended for over a metre in length and half 

 as much in depth, and digging the creature 

 out was a thankless task; Dr. Forel obtained 

 some by drowning them out and others in a 

 way characteristic of a myrmecologist : he 

 secured a bag of ants, a species of Acantho- 

 lepis, and setting them loose before the 

 burrow, they entered it and soon ousted the 

 occupant. 



Alpine faunas. — An interesting general 

 statement of the characteristic features of the 

 entomological, and especially coleopterolog- 



