BUTTERFLY COLLECTING IN COSTA RICA. 191 



impassable by the constant and heavy rainfall ; for who can 

 catch butterflies, be they ever so abundant, standing over one's 

 ankles in mud, whose peculiarly sticky qualities would suggest 

 to the most unimaginative mind that an extract of glue could 

 surely be obtained from the mud of Costa Rica ! In fact, it was 

 not at all an unusual event to find oneself " stuck fast " in this 

 black gluey mixture, and to see some beautiful unknown species 

 of butterfly come and settle within easy reach of the net, only a 

 few yards away from where the mud-bound biped would be 

 standing exasperate but quite helpless and powerless to effect its 

 capture, till the bright vision would vanish as it had come, all 

 unconscious of the possible danger that had menaced it from 

 below. 



I could not make out that in the lowlands of Costa Eica, at 

 least on the Atlantic side, there is ever a dry season ; it rains 

 all the time with, of course on some days, intervals, often 

 of several hours, of fierce sunshine, and then it is that one sees 

 the butterflies ! At San Jose, and in the higher mountains, 

 there is a dry season, from December onwards during the winter 

 months, which, however, the inhabitants call the " summer," 

 and the wet season is the " winter " for them, though, of course, 

 as Costa Rica lies north of the equator, this is not really the 

 case. On the Pacific side the climate is, I believe, much drier, 

 but of that I can say nothing from personal experience ; except 

 for one day's collecting at Rio Grande, which only tended to 

 give me some idea of what that side of Costa Rica would have 

 been like had various circumstances not prevented me from even 

 trying to work it. I was told, on more than one good authority, 

 that, except for Morphos and Caligos, the Pacific side has cer- 

 tainly far better collecting even than the Atlantic side, and from 

 that one day at Rio Grande alone, I can readily believe it. 



The following is a list of the species taken during the five 

 months, from March 23rd to August 14th, 1911, that we collected 

 in Costa Rica — one hundred and fifty-seven in all : — 



Papilio americus, Koll. — This butterfly (which seems to come 

 closer to P. hospiton than any other Papilio I know) was common 

 all round San Jose in June and July. 



P. thoas, Linn. — Fairly common at Santo Domingo, near San 

 Jose, in July. I secured two very fine females. 



P. photinus, Doubld. — This Papilio was very common at Rio 

 Grande on July 27th, but unfortunately the condition of the speci- 

 mens left much to be desired, in fact, I only took one female I 

 considered worth setting. 



P. polydamus, Linn. — Observed at Limon ; not very common. I 

 did not succeed in taking a good specimen, and having already a fine 

 series of bred ones from Jamaica, perhaps I did not trouble very 

 much about it. 



P. monitor, Cram. — A large Papilio larva, bearing a strong 

 resemblance to the larva of Polydamus, found by me at San Antonio, 



