10 Mr. H. W. Butes's Notes 



When many other tribes, and whole orders of insects (as Colcop- 

 tera), have long ceased to appear, after two or three months' 

 absence of rain, these charming little butterflies are in their 

 element, flitting about with restless activity. At Altar do Chao I 

 have seen many scofes in a walk along the parched dusty alleys of 

 the forest, in the month of November. Some of them settle on 

 the upper surface of the leaves, as C. Calitas, gently opening and 

 closing their wings during the brief intervals of their repose, 

 others alight at once on the under surface in the manner of the 

 Tharops, &c. ; whilst others, as C. Char'da and C. Caieta, are more 

 especially fond of the sweet smelling blossoms above mentioned. 

 When on the Tapajos I used to see three or four at a time im- 

 bibing the sweets in company with the Tapajos Zeonia, several 

 Theclas, and sometimes an Odontocera Mesene. I think this will 

 prove a natural group of butterflies, allied to Anatole on one side, 

 but distinguished from them by the shortness of the palpi, and to 

 C/iaris on the other, from which they will have to be distinguished 

 by their colours and facies. I do not know the species which are 

 included in the several genera. In my collection here I have 

 nineteen species which I consider Me&ene ; all are small butterflies 

 of bright and trenchant colours ; all are found in woods of second 

 growth, reposing w-ith wings horizontal on the under side of 

 leaves, and all are identical in point of neuration with Nymphi- 

 dium, &c. Some of the species are very common, and generally 

 distributed throughout the Amazons, and are the first insects one 

 meets with on entering the woods behind the villages. Their 

 flight is nimble, like that of the Nymphidiinai generally. 



ThecUdce. — In the immediate vicinity of Para, the Theclce are 

 in astonishing variety, although the number of individuals of each 

 species is very sparing. They people chiefly those parts of the 

 forest of second growth which have once been plantations of fruit 

 and coffee trees, and which are now overgrown by scattered 

 bushes, young trees, or dense thickets of Melastomae, Tucuma 

 and Maraja palms, myrtles, mimosas, &c. ; but as they occur only 

 in certain states of the weather, and are very local in their distri- 

 bution, it requires long practice to collect them successfully. 

 During the months of August and September, 1851, I paid very 

 close attention to the Thecltdo', and succeeded in taking about 

 eighty distinct species, after pairing fourteen or fifteen dissimilar 

 sexes. All the species are remarkably alike in their habits, and 

 do not differ in this respect from the European species. They fly 

 by jerks, sometimes skipping backwards and forwards, and settle 



