Dr. G. B. Longstaff's Bionomia Notes on Butterflies, 623 



yellow juice exudes ; a minute drop of this placed on the 

 tongue tasted somewhat bitter and disagreeable, but the 

 flavour w^as by no means strong." * 



(Ceylon, 1908.) " The yellow juice slightly bitter." 



Crastia asela, Moore. In two ^ the juice was found 

 to be tasteless : in another it had a slight, ? bitter, taste. 

 In 2 $ it was noted as " nearly tasteless," " tasteless, or 

 nearly so." 



Pademma sinhcda, Moore (Ceylon, 1908). The yellowish 

 juice of a ^ is recorded as " ? tasteless." 



Isaviia midamus, Linn. ; superba, Herbst (Hong-Kong, 

 1904). " The yellow juice expressed by pinching has no 

 marked taste." 



A yellow juice, similar in appearance, has been noted in 

 certain Heterocera believed to be distasteful. I give the 

 instances which have attracted ray attention. 



Obeidia tigrata, Guen. (Hong-Kong, 1904). A conspic- 

 uous day-flying Geometer, allied to our Magpie-moth. 

 Of this my note is : " Has a somewhat slow flight, and 

 on the wing looks like a yellow butterfly ; abundant and 

 decidedly gregarious, many flying about one tree in the 

 afternoon. When pinched it exudes a yellow juice having 

 a bitter taste." I do not appear to have examined it for 

 scent, but, whether or no it possesses an evil odour, it has 

 other characteristics of a distasteful species. 



Euschema transversa, Walk. (Ceylon, 1908). Of this 

 handsome very slow-flying diurnal Geometer it is noted 

 that it is extremely tenacious of life, but that its yellow 

 juice is tasteless. 



Chalcosia venosa, Walk. (Ceylon, 1908). This day-flying 

 moth flutters much about trees (especially Litsxa zea- 

 lanica, N. ab. E.), moving however faster from one tree to 

 another when its flight is somewhat " vapouring." It is 

 tenacious of life, resisting alike pinching and chloroform. 

 It has a peculiar, faint, disagreeable odour, and exudes a 

 yellow juice, the flavour of which still invites investigation. 



In contrast to these somewhat ambiguous results is the 

 conspicuous S. African Kcxi^ioxi, Phy mate as leprosus, Serv.; 

 when touched this emits copiously a dark olive-green very 

 fetid fluid, which when accidentally tasted proved to be 

 both bitter and unpleasant.f 



* Longstuff, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1905, p. 103. 

 t Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1906, p. 3.35. 



