LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



daytime, and was then probably absent on business ; but 

 every evening for six consecutive evenings, I found it return 

 faithfully to the same sleeping-place. Then some accident 

 probably befel it, for I never saw any trace of it again. 



" I do not know whether all Butterflies return to the same 

 sleeping-place so regularly, but I have the following observa- 

 tions to record on the sleeping-places of the Lycanida and of 

 the Micro-Lepidoptera. When you go into an Indian forest at 

 daybreak, while the grass and low-growing plants are still quite 

 wet with the night's dew, you see Micro-Lepidoptera sitting 

 everywhere on the tops of the plants. As soon as the rays of 

 the sun begin to make themselves felt, which quickly happens, 

 and dry up the plants, the little animals creep slowly down the 

 stalks and hide themselves in the moss and among the roots 

 of the plants to pass their day's sleep in stillness and darkness. 

 An hour after sunrise there is not a trace of them to be seen. 

 The Lycanidce, however, which are day-fliers, do just the oppo- 

 site at this time. As soon as the sun begins to make itself 

 well felt, they creep slowly up along the stalks of the low 

 plants ; and when they have basked for a long time on the top 

 in the warm sunlight, they fly away. The influence of the 

 warmth of the sun on the flight of Butterflies may also be 

 noticed from the circumstance that in the Netherlands very 

 few Butterflies are seen on the wing before eight o'clock in the 

 morning, even during the longest summer days ; and those which 

 love great heat, such for instance as the Lyccenida, do not ap- 

 pear in daylight till some time later; whereas in the East 

 Indies the Butterfly world is already in full movement by a 

 good hour after sunrise.* 



"When Linnaeus made his classification of animals, he estab- 

 lished among Lepidoptera a class of twilight-fliers, or Crepuscu- 



* On dull days, or in the evening, I have often seen Polyommatus agon 

 sitting asleep in numbers on grass and rushes. 



