1908.) 75 
above all moisture. It was a little before 4 p.m. on the rather dull 
afternoon of March 20th, 1907, that I first scrambled up this gully. 
I had met with a few Ithomiines previously, but only odd ones, here 
and there; now it was my pleasure to sce what I had read of. 
Bates, in his classical paper on the Heliconiide, writing of the 
genus Ithomia, says:—‘‘ They are prolific insects, and gregarious in 
their habits, flocks of many different species associating together. 
Their flight is low and weak ; and they affect only certain parts of 
the forest, generally shady hollows, where many hundreds may often 
be seen sporting together, though not an individual is found in any 
other part of the neighbourhood.”— Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxiii, 
p. 939. 
Again :—‘“ The flocks of Butterflies, all of the same colour, and 
undistinguishable from one another when on the wing, which fly 
together in the same dry hollows of the forest. . . .”  JLbid., 
p. 541. 
Alongside the right bank of the mountain stream was a com- 
paratively level strip of ground, some six or eight yards wide, damp, 
and in placcs swampy, covered for the most part with the “ Life- 
plant” (Bryophyllum calycinum, Salisb.). The place was  over- 
shadowed by what appeared to be a species of “ Coral-tree,” or 
“ Bois immortel,” as it is called in Trinidad (Hrythrina sp.), and there 
was an undergrowth of Wild Coffee and a few Bamboos. As 
I pushed along, my movements suddenly disturbed a number of 
butterflies, which fluttered about in clouds, looking with their trans- 
parent wings almost like Zipule, only more ghost-like. Sometimes 
their wings would catch the light with an iridescent gleam, but nore 
usually little could be seen save the opaque white marks upon their 
wings. Of course the more thickly scaled forms were more con- 
spicuous, but as a rule all the black portions of the insects were 
invisible. It was a wonderful sight, but quite bewildering. Two or 
three sweeps of the net entrapped a dozen or so. I only took back 
that afternoon thirty-five specimens, which I imagined included three 
or four, possibly five or six species. In truth, there were eleven 
species belonging to eight genera. 
A visit to the same spot the next day produced a similar result, 
the hour was earlier and the Ithomiines were not so closely packed, 
yet I took home thirty specimens, which proved to belong to nine 
species, three of which I had not taken on the first day. A third 
visit failed to add further to the list which stands as follows :— 
