MEPONA. By H. FRUHSTOfeFfiR. 551 



set with small hairs, which corresponds about on the whole to the description of grown-up P;-e?;ow/<-larvae 

 being, according to Dr. Seitz, provided with a depression behind the head. 



The genus exclusively comprises species of an uncommonly strong and, at the same time, regular struc- 

 ture of the body. The wing-contour is likewise rather uniform (the forewings always pointed, sonaetimes 

 projecting like a sickle) and in more than two tliiixls of the species even the magnificent blue colouring of the 

 median part of all the wings. 



As to the wing-contour, the bluish-black Prepona resemble the genus Aganisthos, while the variegated 

 species, by their sliglit ajjical rounding, form the transition to the Agrias. being celebrated for their colours, 

 with which they also share the same habits and which always exhibit very much rounded forewings. 



Like the palaearctic Charaxes, they live in the woods and ai-e fond of rotting fruit or excrements, their 

 wings also jjroduce a crackling noise like thick pajser when being folded together, what we have also mentioned 

 already in Asiatic and Australian Charaxes. 



In Santa Catharina I observed Prepona in all the larger forests. The butterflies were, however, by 

 no means common and still less they formed a characteristic feature of the landscape, like the Heliconids and 

 Morphids. On the contrary, the Prepona lived hidden and timid in the forest-gloom and nearly always in soli- 

 tude. The only occasion for observing them was when they came flying to small trees in order to pilfer from 

 the emanating sap. Then- most favourite meeting-place was the spot where the sweet, fermenting sajj was 

 emanating from the holes which small beetles had bored into the trees. If such sap-trees, the so-called ,,Wald- 

 schenken", had once been discovered, we could safely depend ujDon Prepona flying to them in a few minutes, 

 especially in intensive sunshine. Then there was always something mysterious about theu- coming and going. 

 The Prepona are by no means gregarious. When laertes or dernophon were di-inking from a sap-hole, and another 

 specimen wished to come near it, there was always a short fight. If Prepona are intended to be taken in 

 numbers, it is necessary to clear a piccade (a hidden path) in the woods by means of the Bush-knife, at 

 best along small water-courses, and to lay out overripe or rotting fruit. After one or two days the butterflies 

 appear tossing greedily upon the savoury meal. In 23laces where the forest is very dark, they forget their 

 customary timidness over their greediness and eager desire to ch'ink and are easily captured by twos or threes 

 at one fruit or bait. 



Near Pebas on the Upper Amazon, Dr. Hahnel has found nine species of Prepona together. They 

 were, beside Morpho achilles, the largest of the species that met there at the bait. When they flew to a leaf, 

 they always settled at the upper end, according to their habit of resting on the trunk with the head turned 

 downwards. It was then a charming sight when next to their unrivalled, towering whitish-gi-ey wings 

 there appeared the green under surface of a Catonephele or the black and white of a Pyrrhogyra. On the other 

 side sometimes an Ageronia spread out its wings, or an Adelpha. Of all the neotropical butterflies, the Prepona 

 have, according to IL4.HNEL, the fastest and wildest flight, as we may easily suppose when regarding their stout, 

 strong thorax. Whereas the Morphids are far-roving species flying for hours in one direction and being, there- 

 fore, not even frightened by wide sheets of water, the Prepona, like most of the Nymphalids, are fond of remai- 

 ning near their breeding-place. There they are at home, and it seems that they are kept back by the fondness 

 of their home and a somewhat faint-hearted feeling, so that they are very seldom seen reconnoitring to 

 remote groups of trees. 



They generally very often repeat their flying expeditions; they very quickly scent the bait laid 

 out by the collector, descend to the ground and are cheated and captured there. But even when being chased 

 up they do not fly far away and hide in the nearest thicket with their wings clapped together, in order to return 

 rather obstinately to their former place. This habit I also noticed in Prothoe francki Godt. in Java and some 

 Charaxes in Siam. For hours I was standing in the highlands of Lagos or in the river-dales of the coast-region 

 in the forest, in order to wait for the butterflies. In the meanwhile I became aware of many other mysteries 

 of that untouched nature there. In great numbers parrots flew from one Araucania to another, or a glistening 

 green tree-snake was wriggling along the branches. Beside the Prepona there appeared occasionally a Caligo 

 martia, and Opsiphanes sidcius or fruhstorferi were also enticed. 



Like Prothoe francki, the Prepona have the same peculiar habit of drinking with their heads turned 

 downward, at what already Dr. Hahnel (Iris 1890 p. 290) and Otto Michael (Iris 1894 p. 220) have been 

 hinting. 



The latter also reports the interesting fact that a Prepona pheridamas returned to the same place every 

 day for 2 months. In Santa Catharina the appearance of the Prepona depends on the season, they grow common 

 only during the southern midsummer, in December, and then they are met until the end of March. Hahnel 

 (Iris 1890 p. 276, 277) reports of Prepona arriving more frequently at the bait beginning from December, near 

 Sao Paulo on the Upper Amazon. Julius Michablis, according to his verbal statement, has come across 

 numbers of them in Obidos already in August. Mabilde reports that catachlora and chalciope occur in Rio 

 Grande do Sul during the whole summer, and mlranda in summer and autumn. Seitz (Eine Lepidopterologische 

 Reise uni die Welt, Wiesbaden 1893) met them in the middle of March near Santos and writes: ,,Theu- rapid 



