386 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



of the question is evident to all who read Dr. Fritz Miiller's writings 

 on the subject. . . . The phenomena with regard to the Heli- 

 conidas are these : In tropical South America a numerous series of 

 gaily coloured butterflies and moths, of very different families, 

 which occur in abundance in almost every locality a naturalist may 

 visit, are found to change their lines and markings together, as if 

 by the touch of an enchanter's wand, at every few hundred miles, 

 the distance being shorter near the eastern slopes of the Andes 

 than nearer the Atlantic. So close is the accord of some half- 

 dozen species (of widely different genera) in each change, that he 

 [Mr. Bates] had seen them in large collections classed and named 

 respectively as one species." 



Ituna and Lycorea are connecting links between the Danaides 

 and the Ithomiae. 



Among the beetles (Coleoptera), I may mention the genus 

 Chlamys, of which Mr. Bates says,* it consists " of small beetles 

 of a cubical shape and grotesque appearance, the upper surface of 

 their bodies being studded with tubercles. They look like any- 

 thing rather than insects ; some of them are an exact imitation of 

 the pellets of excreta of caterpillars on leaves" (e.g. Chlamys 

 Nattereri,\ Kollarjf C. arcula,\ Germ., etc.). "Others have a 

 deceptive likeness to small flower-buds, galls, and other vegetable 

 excrescences; while some large kinds are like fragments of metallic 

 ore" (e.g. Poropleura baaa,\ Kirby; P. monstrosa,\ Oliv.). "They 

 are very sluggish in their motions, and live in the most exposed 

 situations on the surfaces of leaves. Their curious shapes are, 

 therefore, no doubt so many disguises to protect them from the 

 keen eyes of insectivorous birds and lizards. 



"A nearly allied group, Lamprosomas" (of which I have 

 several species), " have perfectly smooth convex bodies ; these 

 glitter like precious stones on the foliage, and seem to be pro- 

 tected by the excessive hardness of their integuments. . . . 



" The Chlamydes are almost confined to the warmer parts of 

 America, and the species, although extremely numerous (about 

 three hundred are known in collections), are nearly all very rare. 



" It is worthy of note that mimicking insects are very generally 



* " The Naturalist on the River Amazons," vol. i. pp. 346, 347. 

 t Collected by me in Minas Geraes and J near Rio de Janeiro, 



