86 Dr. G. B. Longstaff' s Notes on the Butterflies 



Concerning B. melmn'pus I wrote to Dr. Dixey at the 

 time : " The Tailed Copper (or Hairstreak) first seen at 

 Dilkusha, Lucknow, and found commonly here to-day, 

 greatly interests me. Not only is it very beautiful, but it 

 is surprisingly hard to see, especially when at rest. Then 

 the structure of the hind -wing is most strange ; posterior 

 to the tail (the next interspace but one) a portion of the 

 wing nearly circular, with a very obvious fringe of large 

 scales, is set at right angles to the plane of the wing and 

 to the direction of the veins." 



According to Schatz and Rober * this " anal lobe " 

 occupies the space between the sub-median and inner mar- 

 ginal veins ; the second anal and third anal of Comstock ; 

 lb and \c of Meyrick ; but I have not found in these authors 

 any allusion to the striking fact that this lobe is quite out 

 of the plane of the wing. This omission may be due to 

 the fact that the process of setting usually flattens the 

 lobe out so that it is hardly seen in cabinet specimens. 

 It did not occur to me at the time (and the suggestion 

 arrived by letter too late) that the object of this structure 

 is possibly to produce the appearance of a head in a non- 

 vital part, the tails representing the antennas. However, 

 drawings made at the time strongly bear out the suggestion. 

 The resemblance would be still more striking if these 

 Lycasnids, like so many of the family, habitually rest with 

 the head downwards. 



In another letter from Benares I said : " Thorns are not 

 specially bad here, only that one does not know the look 

 of many thorny plants until too late. But, on the other 

 hand, burrs of every sort and kind abound to an incredible 

 degree and tangle up the net ; much of one's time is 

 spent in freeing net and breeches therefrom." 



It might have been added that at Benares I first made 

 acquaintance (somewhat intimate) with "spear-grass," 

 which is yet more provocative of bad language than 

 either thorn or burr. 



Some three miles from Benares, on the way back from 

 Sarnath, where Buddha first taught, I found Delias eucharis 

 in extreme abundance in a small field of the tall marigold 

 which is so much cultivated for the service of the temples. 

 A truly gaudy sight it was to see crowds of these white, 

 yellow, and scarlet butterflies upon the orange-coloured 

 blossoms. 



* Die. Familien und Gattungen der Tagfalter, 



