PIERIBM. 123 



avoid obstacles. The species which comprise these sensational flii^hts are the 

 following, to the exclusion of almost any other : — Euploea Asela (and E. Montana in 

 May), Appias albina, A. Paulina, and the two Gatopsilias, Papilio Demoleus, and 

 Belenois Mesentina [Taprohana'\, irregularly. He calculated the number passing 

 two fixed points 20 yards apart close to the edge of the sea, and concluded that not 

 less than 14,000 passed between these points during the hours the flight lasted, from 

 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m." Another observer. Col. C. J. Bingham, says, " I had been 

 in the Salween forests, beyond the great rapids, and was returning to Moulmein. 

 It was a steamy day in October, and I was lying with the hot fever fit on me in the 

 boat on the Salween below Shwegon, when I noticed clouds of butterflies, chiefly 

 Gatopsilia, migrating, crossing tlie Salween from East to West in a continuous 

 stream" (Tr. Bnt. Soc. Lond. 1902, 363). 



MiMiOEY. — Mimicry in this family of butterflies, within our area, occurs in the 

 genus Metaporia, — M. Caphusa, Ariaca, and Agathon, eacb being fair mimics of tlie 

 common Limnaine butterfly Parantica melanoides. The females of the various 

 species of Nepheronia, also mimic species of the Limnaine genera Bahora, Parantica, 

 Cacluga, and Badacara. In Uebomoia Glaucipjpe, and allied, species, when at rest 

 with the wings vertically closed, the resemblance to a dead leaf is very striking. 

 Mimicry also occurs between certain genera within the Family, an example of which 

 is the Ceylonese Prioneris Sita, this rare species being, in both sexes, a splendid 

 mimic of the common and highly-protected Piccarda Eucliaris. 



Seasonal Broods. — In his " Notes on Indian Pierinte," Capt. E. Y. Watson 

 ( Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 1894, p. 489) writes, " In different parts of the 

 Indian region the seasons vary to a certain extent, so that it cannot be laid down as 

 a fixed rule that specimens captured in any particular month will belong to any 

 particular form ; besides which allowance has to be made for breaks in the rains or 

 showers in the dry-season. Roughly, however, the rainy-season may be said to 

 extend from the middle of May to the middle of November, and the dry-season for 

 the rest of the year, and it will be found that the very large majority of the 

 specimens obtained during these periods will be wet- and dry-season forms respec- 

 tively. The limitations given above are approximately those of the seasons in 

 Burma, but they are liable to vary a fortnight either way, while in the hilly districts 

 of that country the rains sometimes continue till well in December. The same 

 limitations would also apply fairly well to the whole of Eastern and Southern India, 

 but in the dry tracts of the North-west the rains are of shorter duration and are 

 less continuous ; consequently rainy-season forms are scarce, and dry-season ones 

 are much more pronounced. 



" It must also be borne in mind that these seasonal races are not confined to 

 two clearly-defined forms, i.e. a rainy-season and a dry-season form, but that in 



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