( lix ) 



than that of the hornbills; but the difficulties raised by the 

 loss have fortunately proved not to be of a very important 

 nature. They will be dealt with in the list of families. 



All the mothers of the families were captured feeding or 

 laying either in my garden or at some Zinnias and Tecleas 

 on the Chirinda Forest outskirts, or else (in a few cases, 

 among which I think the leighi-like parent was one) between 

 the two places — a distance of probably 400 yards. 



A word about the laying conditions may be worth adding. 

 I found rather small cages in which the butterfly did not 

 easily lose touch with the food-plant the most successful. 

 Flowers (Zinnias, Verbena and Madagascar Periwinkle — 

 all favourites) were placed in each box, but the butterflies 

 were so bad at feeding in captivity that I could not trust to 

 this, and gave each at least one daily " forcible " feed of sugar 

 water by a method that I have described in a previous short 

 communication. Sun seemed rather important, but was in- 

 jurious when too hot. I kept all the cages in a verandah and 

 shifted them with the shifting of the sun in such a way that 

 they received mixed sun and shade for as much of the 

 day as possible. On hot days I syringed the whole inside of 

 the cage three or four times with water. I also in some of 

 the cages tried lining the bottom with moss in order to hold 

 the moisture. Using these methods I was very successful 

 indeed in obtaining eggs. I cannot lay hands on my detailed 

 notes at the moment, but I believe I am safe in saying that 

 at any rate one butterfly lived for nearly three weeks. A 

 point perhaps worth mentioning is that the confinement of 

 several butterffies together, even in a large cage, did not seem 

 to succeed. They unsettled each other, a flutter on the part 

 of one starting the rest ofi too, and I obtained but few eggs in 

 the cases (S and T) in which I tried this plan. 



It is perhaps interesting that, as I understand from Mr. 

 Leigh occurs in Natal, larvae of P. dardanus that pupate 

 in the late rains or early winter remain in the pupal state till 

 what I call at Chirinda the " Femowia-season " arrives — in 

 August and September. Not only are frosts now over, but 

 Pa^i7io-havmted flowers are out in abundance. I noticed 

 in some of the broods that pupated in very cold weather a 



