178 Mr. P. H. Gosse on the Insects of Jamaica. 



long, erect wings pointing in different directions, was not a little 

 curious. An observant young friend residing near the spot, to 

 whom I have been indebted for much valuable information in 

 natural history, assured me, that every evening these Heliconice 

 assembled in the same manner and performed the same evo- 

 lutions, and that I had not seen a third part of the numbers often 

 collected in that spot for the night's repose. 



I should add, that this association, at least as far as I am ac- 

 quainted with the habits of the species, seems exclusively noc- 

 turnal : during their diurnal flight I have never observed anything 

 like sociality, with the exception of pairing individuals. 



22. Colcenis Delila. Nearly equally abundant with the pre- 

 ceding, this species is generally to be seen in the same localities. 

 It is a low flier, flitting with fitful irregularity over the shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants that are almost always in blossom by the 

 sides of roads, on which it frequently alights. It is captured 

 with ease, though, when alarmed, it is capable of powerful and 

 rapid flight. 



23. Agraulis vanilla. This richly-silvered Fritillary is also an 

 abundant species in the lowlands at all seasons. It affects waste 

 fields, pastures, road-sides, the rank and tangled vegetation that 

 fringes the edges of woods and similar situations, beating with 

 irregular undulating motion over the flowers. It usually keeps 

 near the ground. 



The Jamaican specimens of this butterfly are all much smaller 

 and less richly coloured than those of the same species which I 

 have taken in Alabama, U.S. 



The three species just mentioned, with Cystineura Mardania, 

 Anartia Jatropha and Paphia Portia, are the most commonly 

 occurring Lepidoptera in the winter months : in the spring, 

 though these do not diminish in abundance, the Pieridce begin 

 to be abundant, and as the summer advances, the Papilionidce, 

 Nymphalidae and Hesperiada become sufficiently numerous to 

 divide the attention of the observer with the former. 



24. Euptoieta Hegesia. This insect occurred sparingly at all 

 seasons ; chiefly at Sabito and other low situations around Blue- 

 fields, and in the neighbourhood of the sea-beach. Its manners 

 are much like those of the preceding species, and as it hovers 

 about flowering plants it is not difficult of capture. 



25. Melitcsa Proclea. Not far from the building known as 

 Bluefields Tavern, on the road leading to the Creek, there is, 

 immediately above the sea-beach, a little patch of ground on 

 which formerly stood a negro-hut, now in ruins. The castor-oil 

 plant (Ricinus palma-Christi), and the physic-nut (Jatropha cur- 

 cas) } which are always planted around the houses of the peasantry, 

 have increased on this little spot with unchecked luxuriance, and, 



