34 RIO DE JANEIRO 



he knows not how to express his feehngs. The general effect 

 frequently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery of the .Opera- 

 house or the great theatres. I never returned from these excur- 

 sions empty handed. This day I found a specimen of a curious 

 fungus, called Hymenophallus. Most people know the English 

 Phallus, which in autumn taints the air with its odious smell : 

 this, however, as the entomologist is aware, is to some of our 

 beetles a delightful fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongylus, 

 attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in 

 my hand. We here see in two distant countries a similar relation 

 between plants and insects of the same families, though the species 

 of both are different. When man is the agent in introducing 

 into a country a new species this relation is often broken: as one 

 instance of this I may mention that the leaves of the cabbages 

 and lettuces, which in England afford food to such a multitude 

 of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near Rio are untouched. 

 During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of in- 

 sects. A few general observations on the comparative import- 

 ance of the different orders may be interesting to the English 

 entomologist. The large and brilliantly-coloured Lepidoptera 

 bespeak the zone they inhabit, far more plainly than any other 

 race of animals. I allude only to the butterflies ; for the moths, 

 contrary to what might have been expected from the rankness 

 of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer numbers 

 than in our own temperate regions. I was much surprised at 

 the habits of Papilio feronia.^ This butterfly is not uncommon, 

 and generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high 

 flier, yet it very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On 

 these occasions its head is invariably placed downwards ; and 

 its wings are expanded in a horizontal plane, instead of being 

 folded vertically, as is commonly the case. This is the only 

 butterfly which I have ever seen that uses its legs for running. 

 Not being aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I 

 cautiously approached with my forceps, shuffled on one side 

 just as the instrument Vvas on the point of closing, and thus 

 escaped. But a far more singular fact is the power which this 

 species possesses of making a noise.^ Several times when a pair, 



1 See page 39. 



^ Mr. Douhleday has lately described (before the Entomological Society, March 

 3rd, 1845 ) a peculiar structure in the wings of this butterfly, which seems to be the 



