296 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



frequently to be seen a moderate-sized butterfly {Victorina 

 stelenes) whose wings, spreading three inches, were pale 

 green marked with brown; the brown marks were so arranged 

 as to cause the paler color to form two rows of spots on the 

 front wings, a band and a row of spots on the hind wings, 

 the inner row or band wider than the outer row in both cases. 

 I came to think of it as preeminently a banana butterfly, 

 but its swiftness and wariness prevented my taking it, at 

 least in my physical condition at that time. Subsequently, 

 however, I caught it at Turrucares and Alajuela where there 

 were few bananas. 



Once when resting near a pile of bananas to see if the 

 butterfly would return, I heard a loud clicking noise that I 

 at once supposed to proceed from a grasshopper or katydid 

 and on looking around to find the musician was astonished 

 to see two butterflies in the spot whence the sound came. 

 Once again at another place I heard the same sound from a 

 pair of the same kind. They belonged to the genus Ageronia 

 and the wings were spotted pale blue and white on the upper 

 side. I saw many individuals during the two days I was at 

 Guacimo but never heard the sound except when two were 

 together, so it may be a sex call. So few Lepidoptera make 

 sounds that the case is noteworthy. One observer's idea, 

 quoted in the Cambridge Natural History, was that the 

 sound attracts a certain bird; I did not know of this when 

 I heard the butterflies, but I saw no bird pursuing the in- 

 sects. 



Several times in the banana fields I saw handsome black 

 and reddish-brown butterflies of powerful and swift flight, 

 which were, I think, Aganisthos orion. I had come to consider 

 it as very wary so that I was astonished this afternoon to 

 have one, on two distinct occasions, fly round and round 

 me close to my person and at length, on the second occasion, 

 alight on my leg as I was standing up. The only explanation 



