1832.] BUTTERFLIES. 31 



Following a pathway, I entered a noble forest, and from a height 

 of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views was pre- 

 sented, which are so common on every side of Rio. At this elevation 

 the landscape attains its most brilliant tint ; and every form, every 

 shade, so completely surpasses in magnificence all that the European 

 has ever beheld in his own country, that he knows not how to ex- 

 press his feelings. The general effect frequently recalled to my 

 mind the gayest scenery of the Opera-house or the great theatres. 

 I never returned from these excursions empty-handed. This day 

 I found a specimen of a curious fungus, called Hyinenophallus. 

 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 Strougylus, 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. AVhen 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 insects. A 

 few general observations on the comparative importance 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 tem- 

 perate 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 in- 

 variably placed downwards; and its wings arc 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 was on the point of 



