NOTES FROM THE SARAWAK MUSEUM, 257 
in the coil and impaled by pressure on the chitinous comb of the 
4th se a hold is then gained with the mouth, апі after a 
few minutes, with a rapid sinuous motion, the larva straightens 
out and disappears below the sand, carrying its prey with it. If 
the larva is not successful in catching its prey the first time, it 
flings sand about in all directions by rapid switching movements, 
and the victim, unable to obtain a foothold on the ‘sliding sides 
of the pit-fall, falis down to the bottom; or occasionally the 
larva actually ‘strikes like a snake at the victim as it endeavours 
to escape from the toils, indeed many of the actions of this larva 
are quite snake-like, and an ant enclosed in one of its coils re- 
minds опе of nothing so much as of a small mammal in the grasp · 
of a python. Occasionally the ргеу seems Decent out of 
proportion to the larva, but by means of the numerous. sete on 
the large posterior ee a very firm inni is сыла in the 
sand, and I have er yet seen an insect of moderate size make 
good his escape after having been once seized. I brought down 
to Kuching alive several of "these lar vee, and one or two pupa- 
ted ; shortly before pupation, the larva leaves its pit-fall and lies 
close to the surface of the sanl, though completely covered; 
the anterior segments become much swollen and retracted, un- 
til the integument bursts, revealing beneath the brownish pupa ; 
by some convulsive movements the whole pupa now appears at the 
surface, the larval skin being slowly shuffled off backwards, but 
never becoming шо? freed, so that the posterior end of the 
upa always presents a som what ragged appearance. Unfor- ` 
tunately the heat of Kading p roved too much for these рирге, 
and none came to maturity, but shrivelled up; some Leptid flies 
which I obtained on Penrissen are, however, I am sure, the 
adult stage. 
ON A MALE SPECIMEN OF PURLISA GIGANTEUS DIST. 
A specimen of this handsome Lycænid butterfly was described 
and figured by Distant in his Rhopalocera Malayana (p. 250. Tab. 
XXI. fig. 28. 1885), but the sex was not stated either in this or 
in two previous descriptions (Distant, oe rogo Mag. Vol. 
XVII. p. 245, 1881, and Waterhouse, Aid. Vol. I. pl. XLVI, 
1882), ара de Nicéville in his “ Butterflies of India,” Vol. iii, p. 
33 
