1893.] 27 



in the year at Amboyna), my success, in Lepidoptera at least, was very 

 good, exceeding anything which I had done in past years, even in the 

 productive regions of Central America and the Isthmus of Panama. 

 During the five days of our stay, I caught and set out representa- 

 tives of more than 100 species of butterflies, upwards of 60 being 

 taken in a single day's work. Nothing can be more enjoyable to the 

 Entomologist than a stroll, net in hand, along the well-kept roads, 

 which extend in every direction from the town, and through the shady 

 and fragrant nutmeg plantations and patches of woodland on either 

 hand, in which large and showy butterflies are so abundant as to form 

 quite a feature in the scene. At the outset I was a little disappointed 

 in not meeting with any of the grand Ornithoptera's for which Amboyna 

 is so famous, and indeed, I saw one specimen only of this genus, a 

 splendid i^ of O. Remus, hopelessly out of reach. Some half-dozen 

 species of Papilio were fairly common, and among them the most 

 conspicuous was the magnificent blue P. Ulysses, L., of which I saw 

 at least a dozen specimens during my stay, but succeeded in capturing 

 three only in good condition. It is a glorious sight to see this noble 

 insect " at home," looking, except for the tailed wings and more sailing 

 flight, very like one of the great blue American MorpJio's, e. g., M. 

 Peleides, &c. Though at first sight he seems by no means difficult to 

 catch, he is as wily as his namesake of old, and appears to know 

 exactly the length of reach of the net, and keeps just outside the 

 line of danger. Another insect which pleased me very much was 

 the large white and black " spectre butterfly," Hestia Idea, found 

 locally in dense woodland about five miles from the town. No but- 

 terfly with which I am acquainted has such a slow, weak, and wavering 

 flight, and, in fact, at a little distance, it looks more like a conjurer's 

 butterfly cut out of a piece of newspaper than a real living insect ! 

 The DanaidcB were represented by several other fine and handsome 

 species, and D. Plexippus (large and richly coloured, with the apex of 

 the fore-wiugs more produced than in any specimens which I have 

 ever seen before) was common in open waste places, where its usual 

 food-plant, Asclepias curassavica, grows freely, and appears to be com- 

 pletely naturalized. Several very fine species of Euploea (one mag- 

 nificent blue-glossed fellow being over five inches in expanse of wings) 

 W'ere more or less plentiful in shady spots ; and in the darker and 

 more tangled portions of the forest, a most conspicuous butterfly was 

 the large Drusilla Urania ?, which flapped about heavily among the 

 brushwood, frequently settling on leaves and displaying the beautifully 

 ocellated under-surface. In similar situations, along with Melanitis, 



