Mr. P. II. Gosse on the Insects of Jamaica. 177 



not recollect any situation (except the interior of the forest) nor 

 any season of the year in which it was not common. It was one 

 of the very first objects that arrested my attention on first setting 

 my foot on shore at Alligator Pond in December : its beauty and 

 singularity of form, the great length and little breadth of the 

 wings, the length and slenderness of the body, and the brilliant 

 contrasts of colour, lemon-yellow and velvety-black, together 

 with the very peculiar flapping of the wings, as if their length 

 rendered them somewhat unwieldy, gave me a sensation of de- 

 lighted surprise. It is very easily captured, being slow of flight 

 and fearless : it flutters heavily along over low herbage at the 

 sides of roads, &c., rarely mounting as high as one's head, ex- 

 cept when alarmed. Low situations and the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the sea-shore appear to be most afiected by it. 

 The commonness of this species has not presented to me any 

 facts to lessen the profound ignorance that exists concerning 

 the earlier stages of the insects of this elegant family. 



The following note, though it has already appeared in print, 

 I may add, as its omission would render the history of the spe- 

 cies imperfect. Just behind the cottage of Content, a narrow, 

 almost impassable foot-path winds along the steep mountain 

 side, through tall bushes, to a secluded little plantation at some 

 distance, embosomed in the forest, and known from its produce 

 as the Coffee-walk. As we climb over the fragments of stone 

 that lie in irregular masses blocking up the way, or scramble 

 round their projecting points, we discover several cavernous re- 

 cesses of greater or less depth and darkness, between the rock. 

 In one of these, over the mouth of which hung down some 

 bushes and trailing plants, I observed one evening just before 

 sunset, near the end of August, a little swarm of these butter- 

 flies. They were about twenty in number, and were dancing to 

 and fro, exactly in the manner of gnats, or as the Hepioli play at 

 the edge of a wood. After watching them awhile, I noticed 

 that some of them were resting with closed wings at the extre- 

 mities of one or two slender depending creepers. One after 

 another fluttered from the group of aerial dancers to the reposing 

 squadron, and alighted close to those already settled, so that at 

 length, when only about two or three of the fliers were left, the 

 rest were collected in groups of half-a-dozen each, so closely 

 packed together that each group might have been grasped in the 

 hand. When once one had alighted, it did not, in general, fly 

 again, but a new-comer, fluttering at the group and seeking to 

 find a place, sometimes disturbed one recently settled, w^hen the 

 wings were thrown open and one or two would fly up again. As 

 there were no leaves on the hanging stems, the appearance pre- 

 sented by these beautiful butterflies, so crowded together, their 



