184 Mr. H. W. Bates on the Nymphaline 
the Nymphaline, exclusive of the Morphite, may be classed, as re- 
spects their habits, into five groups. The first comprises a series of 
genera and species which resemble our Apatura Jris in manners and 
style of flight. These live in the crowns of the forest-trees, and 
descend only to the ground in sunny places to suck the moisture from 
mud, moist sand, or ordure on the forest-pathways or the margins of 
pools and streams. But it is the males almost exclusively that have 
this latter habit, the females remaining in the forest, where their 
mates join them, after their summer day’s separation, in the after- 
noons when the sun is getting low. The males in very many of 
these species are much more brightly coloured than the females, and 
appear to be much more numerous. In some places, during the fine 
season (August to October), they assemble by hundreds, sometimes 
thirty or forty species together, of the most varied shapes and colours, 
to sport about in muddy places exposed to the morning sun, Cata- 
gramme and Callithee, with liveries of velvety crimson and black, or 
sapphire and orange; Hunicw, with purple hues glancing in the 
sunlight as they fly; swallow-tailed Timetes of many species ; silky- 
green Eubages ; blue, white, and black Megistanes, tailed like the 
Charaxes Jasius of Europe, and many other kinds less conspicuous 
in colour and form, are all seen together, either settled on the ground 
or swiftly flying to and fro above it. If the day becomes cloudy or 
windy, the sensitive creatures gradually betake themselves to the 
shelter of the neighbouring forest. Warm, calm, gleamy weather 
seems the most favourable to their appearance in the open places, a 
few females sometimes venturing from the forest at these times to 
join the company. 
The second group is formed by such species as, having similar 
habits to those of the first group, never or very seldom leave the 
forest. Most of the richly coloured Epicalie belong to this category, 
and also the Z’emenes and others. These have, like many of the pre- 
ceding, a rapid and irregular flight, the males settling for a few 
moments at a time on foliage where a ray of sunlight pierces the 
shades. The third group consists of species allied to the Limenites 
of Europe, such as the Heterochrow, many kinds of Eubagis, the 
Pyrrhogyre, and others, all of which fly about the lower trees in 
thinned parts of the forest, and have a floating, partly horizontal, and 
wheeling flight. If they are disturbed when settled on a leaf near 
the ground, they wheel round in flying off and settle on a higher 
place, and so on, until they are out of reach. The fourth group, also 
shade-lovers, are such as settle only on the trunks of trees ; these are 
the Gynecie and Callizone, which hold their wings erect in repose, 
