of the Amazon Valley. 183 
much diversified, and it is the same with their haunts and modes of 
fhght. A certain number of genera, belonging more especially to 
the Argynnis and Vanessa groups, such as Colenis, Agraulis, Hu- 
ptoieta, Melitea, Anartia, and Junonia, are seen only in open sunny 
places, such as weedy plantations and the suburbs of towns and 
villages or the borders of woods. These are never found in the 
shades of the forest, and the food-plants of their larve are such as 
grow only in open semicultivated places. It is interesting, there- 
fore, to find that the only Amazonian genera which are closely re- 
lated to the Argynnes and Vanesse of our own country are such as 
inhabit a sort of localities that both regions afford, and not the great 
tropical forest which harbours the peculiar forms of South America. 
The Melitece of the Amazons are very small and plainly marked ; 
indeed they cannot be compared for size and beauty of form and 
markings with our English Athalia or Cinxia, and, like these north- 
ern species, they frequent weedy and flowery places on the borders 
of woods, flying low, and having somewhat of the floating motion in 
their flight: unlike the insects of the Vanessa group, one only of 
which (Junonia Lavinia) is found in the Amazons region ; for these 
are irregular in the motions of their wings, and settle frequently. 
Euptoieta Hegesia, the only butterfly of the Amazons region that has 
a near resemblance to the Argynnes of Europe, inhabits the undu- 
lating meadow-districts of the country which lie near the middle part 
of the lower course of the river, and is never seen in the true forest- 
districts. This species, which is about the size of Argynnis Lathonia, 
flies about the lower herbage and flowering bushes in the same way 
as our British Argynnes. There are two other Amazonian genera, 
Anartia and Libythina, which accompany the Argynnite and Vanes- 
site in their grassy haunts; but these generally prefer the marshy 
meadows on the banks of rivers. 
The rest of the Amazonian Nymphaline are denizens of the great 
forest, and nearly all of the genera, as before remarked, are peculiar 
to Tropical America; being creatures of the humid and luxuriant 
sylvan domain which spreads over all the river-valleys, and extends 
in most parts of the region far up the slopes of the mountains, skirt- 
ing everywhere the margins of rivulets and torrents. One only of 
these genera is found in Europe, namely, Apatura, two species of 
which, inferior to our purple Emperor in size and beauty, inhabit the 
banks of the Amazons. If we except the genus Hresia, the species 
of which are no other than Melitee, with wings lengthened after the 
manner of their inseparable companions, the Heliconw, and which 
hover about low shrubs in the shade of the forest, the remainder of 
