73 
The Drinking Habits of Butterflies and Moths. 
By J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. Read November 11th, 1897. 
In “Rambles in Alpine Valleys” I note the habits of the various 
blue butterflies that I observed to collect in large numbers around the 
little puddles that were frequently met with on the path that leads up 
the Val Ferrex on the Piedmont side of Mont Blanc. I there write, 
“The puddles in the road are surrounded with living gems of beauty. 
See that beautiful flower of various shades of blue. The white-ringed 
stamens move up and down with all the symptoms of life, the blue 
petals now quiver and now rest, as if moved by vital force; one of 
the petals moves independently of the others, as if fanned bya gentle 
breeze, and the slight change in its position makes its sapphire beauty 
appear quite iridescent in the sunlight ; but as you stretch out your 
hand to pick up the flower it disappears, breaking into fragments, 
whilst a little cloud of blue butterflies rises around you, leaving in 
the road a little wet spot at which they were slaking their thirst. It 
appears, then, that butterflies require drink as much as we do. In 
this hot temperature the fluids of our bodies are rapidly reduced by 
perspiration, and probably the butterflies suffer in a somewhat similar 
manner. How helpless they often are at noon! the bright activity 
and remarkable energy of the early morning have then disappeared, 
and they hang listlessly sucking nectar from the flowers around, 
allowing themselves to be picked up by the fingers ; or else they seek 
a stream or puddle from which they imbibe the muddy liquid until 
satiated. The more filthy the puddle, the more certain usually is one 
to find these brilliant little gems, not ‘daintily fed on honey and 
sweet dew,’ but sucking up the noisome liquid of a manure heap or 
other vile excrement. Wherever such spots are to be found, there these 
lovely little creatures abound also, ruining that marvellous character 
which has been built up around butterfly life through long ages.” 
These were my impressions some two years ago, and it is because 
I have progressed no further, but am rather inclined to doubt 
whether my views are quite correct, that [ venture to bring the matter 
before you, so that some farther light may be thrown on a simple 
habit not so easily to be explained as at first may appear. 
In my early entomological days I remember no paper the reading 
of which gave me such pleasure as Kirby’s translation of an essay by 
Piepers which had been published in the ‘‘ Proceedings of the Ento- 
mological Society of Holland,” vol. xix, and which has recently been 
reprinted in his work, “A Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera,” 
vol. i, pp. Ixi1 to lxxiv. It was this paper that first awakened in me the 
idea that there was as much, or more, pleasure to be obtained from 
