704 Major Neville Manders on 



country immediately in front of them is clear of them 

 for the time being ; whereas in the former, the butterflies 

 in whatever part of the island they happen to be hatched 

 immediately begin to migrate, so that on the same day 

 the migration is as vigorous in one part of the island as 

 in another. As the butterflies hatch in Colombo they 

 immediately fly north, and their places are promptly filled 

 by the insects coming up from Galle, the Galle ones by 

 those from Hambantotte and so on round to Trincomalee, 

 beyond which in the uninhabited country to the north I 

 have been unable to trace them. The proof that the 

 insects on the Trincomalee side really do follow the coast- 

 line and come to Colombo is shown by the fact that it is 

 only during the flights that certain butterflies otherwise 

 confined to that portion of the island, Papilio Jason for 

 instance, occur at Colombo, and are there seen migrating 

 in the same frantic haste as their companions. 



On one occasion, on December 2, i. e. in the wet season, 

 I was observing the flight from Fort Frederick, Trincomalee. 

 The butterflies came from the northern shore straight 

 across the sea to the end of the peninsula on which Fort 

 Frederick is built ; several bushes of the food-plant of 

 C. "pyranthe were growing there, and these were literally 

 covered with eggs, as many as half-a-dozen on a single leaf; 

 the bushes were so speckled with the multitude of eggs 

 that they looked as if handfuls of sago had been scattered 

 over them. The flights in November and December on 

 both sides of the island undoubtedly comprise a majority 

 of females, but scarcely a single larva out of this inulti- 

 tude of eggs could possibly have come to maturity ; there 

 was not enough food for half of them, and on a previous 

 migration the bushes not far off" were completely stripped 

 by the larvae. 



The insects composing the coast flight are almost entirely 

 Catopsilias, two species of Appias, Enphea ascla, and 

 E. montana, in the hill districts, and Danais se])tcntrionis 

 irregularly. I should have mentioned that the process of 

 laying eggs was totally contrary to what one usually 

 observes — there was no attempt to choose a suitable leaf, 

 no deliberation displayed about the operation at all, but 

 every female seemed possessed with the one insane idea 

 of getting rid of her eggs with the utmost expedition, 

 utterly regardless of the fate of tlie future laiva;, and 

 then madly continuing her flight. When in full migration 



