34 SOUTH-AFKICAN BUTTEKFLIES. 



whicli have the under side very closely resembling the tints of the 

 ground on which they are in the habit of settling.^ Mdanitis Leda 

 and M. divcrsa rest habitually among dead leaves in shady spots, and 

 their under side is so coloured and marked as to render it indistinguish- 

 able. The female Uronia Leda has a rather bright sulphur-yellow, 

 red blotched under side, and it was only when I saw her settle on the 

 half-withered leaves of the Erythrina that I even guessed how pro- 

 tective this under side was. Similarly, Mrs. Barber wrote to me how 

 struck she was with the behaviour of the conspicuous male Fajnlio 

 Cenea, which twice deliberately selected in her garden, as a resting- 

 place during a shower of rain, a shrub whose pale yellow and brown 

 seeds and flowers entirely agreed with the colouring of the under side 

 of his wings. The shining white under side of lolaus Silas is extremely 

 conspicuous in the cabinet, but I was surprised to observe in Natal 

 how it escaped notice, in the full noonday sunlight, among the highly 

 polished glittering leaves of a shrub the butterfly frequented. 



By far the most elaborate disguise of this kind among butterflies 

 is the famous one, first brought prominently to notice by Mr. Wallace, 

 of the Indian and Malayan Kallima Inachis and K. Faralelda. In 

 these species of Nympludince, which on the upper side are deep blue 

 and orange, the under side copies with perfect accuracy the withered 

 or shrivelled leaves of certain dead trees or bushes, the imitation 

 going into such exact details as to reproduce in appearance the minute 

 fungi or moulds that grow on the leaves. But this is by no means all 

 the extent of the representation, the shape of the wings when the 

 insect is at rest not only agreeing generally with that of the leaf, but 

 presenting both the elongated apex and the foot-stalk, and the attitude 

 assumed both bringing into prominence those details and concealing 

 such parts as the head and antennae, which might impair the complete- 

 ness of the deception. It is no wonder to find Mr. Wallace speaking 

 of these large and swift butterflies " vanishing " when they settled 

 among a cluster of the withered leaves. 



It has been above observed that it is by either the swiftness or the 

 irregularity of their flight that butterflies, so conspicuous on the wing, 

 evade pursuers ; but there are some remarkable exceptions to this rule. 

 Throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions there occur slow- 

 flying, brightly or very distinctly coloured forms, rendered even more 

 conspicuous by their lengthened bodies and wings, which seem to 

 make no effort whatever to escape or to conceal themselves, but which, 

 though usually very numerous in individuals (and sometimes numerous 

 in species), and exposing themselves freely in haunts abounding with 

 the enemies of butterflies, are evidently exempt, or almost so, from 



^ Junona Cehrene has been observed by Colonel Bowker to be much hunted by a small 

 lizard in the Trans-Kei country ; and Mrs. Barber informs me that Pyrameis Cardui is a 

 frequent victim among the butterflies with which the Sun-Birds {Nectarinice) feed their 

 young. 



