114 Dr. G. B. Lcmgstaff's Notes on the Butterflies 



near the foot of the hills. Accordingly I went with him 

 on March 2nd, and again alone on the following day. 

 This involved travelling by an early goods-train to Kallar, 

 the first station on the mountain railway above Mettu- 

 palaiyam, about 2000 ft. above the sea, but only 200 ft. to 

 300 ft. above the plain. Here, as in other parts of India, 

 the best places for insects, at any rate in the winter season, 

 are to be found in the belt of jungle at the foot of the 

 hills, or in the woods on their lower slopes. But it is just 

 in these places where the dreaded Anopheles is as abund- 

 ant as the Rhopalocera, and the station-master at Kallar 

 told me that entomologists always slept at Koniir and 

 went up and down by train to avoid the nocturnal 

 terrors of the deadly malaria — the tiny, innocent-looking 

 Anopheles ! 



The collecting-ground was various, and included, besides 

 bushy jungle with plenty of flowers near the station, large 

 irrigated banana and betel-nut plantations as well as the 

 bed of the river with its bordering woods. 



The first thing to catch the eye was Papilio hector, L., 

 and very magnificent he looked fluttering at the flowers of 

 Lantana in his crimson-and-black suit set off with white. 

 This is indeed one of the most striking butterflies that I 

 met with in my travels, with its wings expanding four 

 inches and upwards. It proved to be distinctly common, 

 but one does not get within reach of every Papilio that 

 one sees, nor indeed does one succeed in netting all that 

 are struck at. P. hector was accompanied by plenty of 

 P. pammon and a few P. aristolochia? . One of the P. hector 

 brought home is remarkable for the fact that the whole of 

 the tips and half the hind-margins of both hind-wings 

 have apparently been bitten off, almost absolutely symmet- 

 rically, by some foe. If the red spots on the under-side 

 be really " warning marks " this is the more noteworthy. 



A boggy, but sunny, corner of an irrigated banana- 

 garden produced single specimens of the fine Skippers 

 Tagiades atticus, Fab. [ ? = T. vunaka, Moore] and 

 Tagiades distans, Moore. 



This same garden and the adjoining plantations of 

 betel-palm (Areca catechu) yielded a few Melanitis ismene, 

 a fair number of Mycalcsis perseits, Fab., as well as 

 Yphthima marshalli and Y. philomela. Job. [= oaldns, 

 Fab.] ; there was also abundance of the pretty and very 

 distinct Yphthima ceylonica, Hew., with its silvery- white 



