20 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



looked like a small yellowish cloud that had made 

 its appearance and was coming down the wind 

 towards us. As the cloud approached nearer, we 

 were able, with the aid of our glasses, to make 

 out that it was composed of dancing objects, 

 which, as the cloud drew nearer still, turned out 

 to be a great company of pale yellow Butterflies, 

 which soon began to fall upon the deck and settle 

 in the rigging of the ship, the majority appearing 

 to be quite exhausted with their long journey, 

 only feebly fluttering when touched or ap- 

 proached, as if their graceful wings were too 

 tired to carry them further. One of these weary 

 little travellers I gently lifted from the deck and 

 placed on the back of the officer's hand, where it 

 rested quite contentedly while I photographed 

 it. Later in the day, as we were passing close to 

 the island of Fernando Noronha, and an inter- 

 change of signals between the ship and the island 

 was taking place, I was able to learn that the 

 cloud of Butterflies had been sighted in the early 

 morning, passing at some distance, by the look- 

 out at the signalling station, so that our Butterfly 

 visitors had been carried to us on the wings of 

 the western wind, direct from the coast of Brazil, 

 probably from the neighbourhood of Cape St. 

 Roque. 



When we try to trace out the history and 

 pedigree of insects, we find that it is by the 

 study of Insect embryology and development 

 that most of the chain of evidence will be built 

 up. Fossil insects are so rare, and only to be 

 found well preserved in so few geological 

 formations, that it has been quite impossible so 



