XXXVlll 



habits of Pajnlioferonia. This butterfly is not uncommon, and 

 generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high flyer, 

 yet it very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On these 

 occasions its head is invariably placed downwards, and its wings 

 are expanded in a horizontal plane, instead of being folded 

 vertically, as is commonly the case. This is the only butterfly 

 which I have ever seen that uses its legs for running. Not being 

 aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I cautiously 

 approached with my forceps, shuffled on one side just as the 

 instrument was on the point of closing, and thus escaped. But 

 a far more singular fact is the power which this species 

 jDOssesses of making a noise. Several times when a pair, 

 probably male and female, were chasing each other in an 

 irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me, and 

 I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a 

 toothed wheel passing under a spring catch. The noise was 

 continued at short intervals, and could be distinguished at about 

 twenty yards' distance. I am certain there is no error in the 

 observation.* 



" I was disappointed in the general aspect of the Coleoptera. 

 The number of minute and obscurely-coloured beetles is ex- 

 ceedingly great. The cabinets of Europe can, as yet, boast only 

 of the larger species from tropical climates. It is sufficient to 

 disturb the composure of an entomologist's mind, to look 

 forward to the future dimensions of a complete catalogue. (I 

 may mention, as a common instance of one day"s (June 23rd) 

 collecting, when I was not attending particularly to the Coleoptera, 

 that I caught sixty-eight species of that order. Among these 

 there were only two of the Carahidce, four Braclielytra, fifteen 

 Rlninchophova, and fourteen of the Chrysomelkhe. Thirty-seven 

 species of Araclinidce, which I brought home, will be sufficient to 

 prove that I was not paying overmuch attention to the generally 

 favoured order of Coleoptera). 



* lu the Proceedings of this Society, March Srd, 1845, Transations IV., 

 cxxiii., we read: — " Mr. Edward Doubleday meutioned that he had recently 

 examined Peridroinia Feronia, the butterfly described by Mr. C. Darwin in 

 his ' Tour,' as making a noise during flight hke the rusthng of parchment, 

 and that he had detected a small membranous sac at the base of the fore- 

 wiugs, with a structure along the subcostal nervure like an Archimedean 

 screw or diaphragni in the tracheae, especially at the dilated base of the 

 wing." 



