COLLECTING LEPIDOPTERA IN JAMAICA. 147 



Blue mountains, the next thing to be clone was to climb the Cuna 

 Cuna Pass. Right on the summit, 2,700ft. a new little butterfly was 

 taken. It proved to be Pliijciuden i>rudea, a rare insect. It is a very 

 small Nymphalid and is related to our Melitaeas. 



The scene on the top of this pass is truly wonderful. Every tree is 

 covered with epiphytes and the ground is one mass of a variety of 

 ferns, which are supplied with water from innumerable springs. On 

 descending not an insect was seen, and I should doubt if anything can 

 breed in this gloomy spot, where the atmosphere must be saturated on 

 nearly every day in the year, for, in addition to the water from below, 

 there is an overwhelming supply from above in the form of rain. Having 

 arrived at the foot of the mountains on the N. side, we are in the home 

 of Papilio Jiomcni^i, one of the largest and rarest of the known Papilios. 

 I learned from two boys who each had a damaged specimen (they had 

 been asked to catch them for an entomologist in New York) that they 

 were very lazy and that you did not require a net ! One of them said 

 he caught his specimen with his fingers off a banana plant. It of 

 course does not feed upon banana, but upon a very different-looking 

 plant, the name of which, however, has never yet been given. I had 

 thought that Mr. Taylor, of Kingston, Jamaica, had given it a name 

 when he described the larva and pupa in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.,OTi! 

 else I should have brought away sufficient of the plant for identification. 

 Mr. Taylor, who took a larva from the tree (all the larvsD have come 

 off one tree) in November, 1893, bred the perfect insect the following 

 month. Mr. Nicholas saw one flying in May, and the two boys men- 

 tioned took theirs in July. It thus seems that there is no particular 

 time of year when one may expect to meet this fine insect. There 

 were some insects here that I had not noted before in the island ; such 

 were Aphrissa statira in the greatest profusion, Appias poeyi, and one 

 or two others. Very few moths came to light except some small 

 Pijraliilae although the weather seemed all in their favour, but being 

 situated in a narroAv valley shut in on all sides may have accounted 

 for the scarcity, a light being very much more attractive at an alti- 

 tude above the surrounding country. From this point (appro- 

 priately called Ultimate) I made my way rid Port Antonio to Castleton, 

 famous for its Botanic Gardens, where plants and shrubs of all kinds 

 grow to the height of luxuriance. Here the Sphingidae were again 

 predominant. Except for the larv® of PscudospJdnx tetrio, which strip 

 the Frangipanny of its leaves, I saw none of the caterpillars of these 

 monsters, P. tetrio has a larva of velvety-black, with the segments 

 banded yellow and a very long slender pink caudal horn which is 

 attached to an excrescence on the twelfth segment and which the larva 

 can move backwards and forwards at will. The perfect insect varies 

 greatly both in size and markings. My specimens measure from 4in. 

 to 6fin. in expanse. From Castleton to Kingston was the next stage 

 of the journey. On the last day of my stay I made the acquaintance 

 of Mr. C. Taylor, who gave me much valuable information as well 

 as a large number of insects I was unable to procure myself. These in- 

 cluded Ewpiirenma ptKjionc, a very handsome " burnet"-like Arctiid that 

 feeds on the deadly yellow nightshade ; Kutliisonotia tintaisca, a Noctuid 

 that destroys the lilies in the Kingston gardens ; Protoparcejawaicensis, 

 a Sphin.r that feeds on the French cotton tree ; Papilio, n. sp., near 

 creqjhuntts, taken in Grand Cayman Island, the larva feeding on a 



