( Ixxxiii ) 



" Most of the Papilioninae and big Nymj^halinae were 

 found in the lower half of the hills and the bamboo jungle at 

 their foot. P. hector, aristolochiae and pohjtes, however, were 

 plentiful all over the cultivated part with hedgerow trees, 

 except in the very dry belt. P. erithormis and agamemnon 

 were common in the wetter half of the cultivated belt. 

 P. dissimilis is the only one I remember on the higher grass 

 over 2500 ft. (except perhaps tamilana and huddha in forest 

 at that height on the northern plateau). I used constantly 

 to see P. hector, male and female, flying in cop., one flying 

 and carrying the other, whose wings were closed. It is so 

 difficult to tell romulus ? from hector, and polytes 2 from 

 aristolochiae, when flying that I am afraid I can't add anything 

 as to their frequency from observation to what the numbers 

 in the collection will tell you. The same applies to cyrus ? 

 and the males of polytes. As to damage by birds I had 

 better go through all my damaged specimens later and write 

 you separately about that. The chief preyers on butterflies 

 were bee-eaters (especially the blue-tailed and chestnut-headed 

 species) and drongos. We used often to find wings of hector 

 under a tree. By the bye, I think I can account for Fer- 

 guson calling P. nomius very rare. I only once saw it in 

 September — otherwise only in March to May. The latter is 

 the unhealthy season when coffee planters stopped work and 

 went for a holiday, and no one who was not obliged to 

 went into the malarious belt at the foot of the hills. Now 

 we were building a big dam then, which took us four years 

 to build, and we did most of the work in March to May 

 because there was no cultivation then and labour was 

 plentiful." 



H. S. Ferguson {ibid., p. 446) also gave the range of polytes 

 in nearly the same words as those used for its models, speak- 

 ing of it as " common in the low country and up to 2000 ft. 

 on the hills. The three forms of the female occur." 



Prof. Poulton also exhibited a female of the cyrus form, 

 unfortunately the only example of this sex in a little series 

 sent by Dr. R. Hanitsch in continuation of that described in 

 our Proceedings for the present year, p. xxx. The specimen 

 was taken in Johore on July 19, 1917. Accompanying it 



