Observed in a tour through India and Ceylon. 91 



black and grey blue, mahogany-brown and black, black and 

 cream colour, black and coral-red, black and yellow, or sky- 

 blue and black, afforded indeed a glorious sight not soon to 

 be forgotten. Alas! such a tropical glory takes much 

 colour out of the most vivid mental pictures of butterfly 

 life at home. 



In a shady grove not far from these flowers Limnas 

 genutia was simply swarming, as many as ten or even twenty 

 being in sight at once, for it is one of the most gregarious 

 butterflies that I have met with. A few observations on 

 this species and Tirumala limniace failed to detect any 

 odour, but it was far otherwise with Delias eucharis, of 

 which several specimens had a distinct sweet scent, very 

 like that of G. rcupm. My strong impression is that this 

 scent is confined to the male, but I cannot, unfortunately, 

 speak with certainty on the point. The male of Huphina 

 nerissa has a distinct scent, also like that of G. rapze, 

 although the butterfly more resembles G. napi. The scent 

 of these two butterflies is neither so sti*ong nor so unmis- 

 takably characteristic as that of G. napi, but its existence 

 is quite beyond question. 



These scents are not easy to deal with. The human 

 nasal organ is but a poor affair at best, moreover scents 

 are very hard to describe, and these butterfly odours are 

 only suggestive of, certainly not identical with, those to 

 which I have, for want of any better standard, compared 

 them. Then the scents are transient and may easily be 

 scattered by the wind or overpowered by neighbouring 

 flowers. Again the scales, independently of any scent, are 

 irritating to the mucous membrane. Lastly, any one who 

 has tried to use the sense of smell for diagnostic purposes 

 must know how even the most volatile perfumeis apt to linger 

 on, lurking as it would appear in the cavernous recesses of 

 the nose. Of course it is much easier to determine in the 

 field whether or no a scent is sexual in those species in 

 which the sexes are distinguishable by very obvious 

 characters. Lastly, it should never be forgotten that in all 

 probability the scents described are far more obvious to 

 the insects themselves than to human observers. 



Only a solitary representative of the Euploia group 

 appears among the Toliganj specimens, but its envelope 

 bears the note : " Common, has a slight peculiar scent, 

 rather disagreeable." Most probably I believed this at the 

 time to be the common Calcutta species Crastia core, but 

 it turns out to be Padcnwia hollari, Feld., and it is now 



