'230 Lionel de Niceville — O71 the Life-History of [No. 2, 



vegetation being tlien very dense, they can hide themselves, and their 

 conspicuous livery is no bar to their safety. My belief that these ocellated 

 spots are conspicuous and non-protective rather than the reverse, is, I am 

 aware, contrary to the opinion of many eminent naturalists ; I can, however, 

 only state my opinion to the contrary for what it is worth and as the 

 result of my own observations : I can see, for instance, a Mycalesis mineus 

 with its big eyes and prominent white discal line far sooner and more 

 easily than I can the plain evenly coloured and marked M. indistans^ but 

 whether this is so with the birds, lizards, Mantodea, predaceous flies, &c., 

 which live largely on butterflies, I am unable to say. Having brought 

 the subject to notice, I hope that it will attract the attention of observ- 

 ing naturalists, and that a solution of the question may soon be forth- 

 coming. 



As to the second point, whether the fourteen named species of 

 butterflies referred to represent that number of distinct species or half 

 that number, I have been able to prove by breeding direct from the egg 

 that the extraordinary seasonal dimorphism which I had suspected to oc- 

 cur does actually exist in the case of four of them ; the three remaining 

 species must wait till the commencement of next rains, when I hope 

 to complete the experiment. 



The transformations of the genus Melanitis have long been known. 

 As far back as 1829 Dr. Horsfield* figured the larva and pupa from Java 

 of M. leda (= M. determinata, Butler) ; Mr. Mooref in 1881 figured 

 those of If. taiiibra from Ceylon, and Surgeon-Major ForsayethJ those of 

 If. ismene. But the transformations of the large genera Mycalesis (con- 

 taining 86 species, according to Mr. Moore's Monograph in 1880, and 

 many new species since described) and Ypthima (containing 31 species 

 up to 1877, according to Mr. Kirby's invaluable Catalogue) have 

 hitherto been quite unknown. And yet, so far as my experience goes, 

 it is very easy to breed them : it is only necessary to procure live 

 females, and to shut them up in any kind of box, in which they will lay 

 eggs ; if the box has a gauze cover, the eggs will be found attached to 

 it ; if blades of grass, or, better still, a pot of growing grass, is placed 

 in the box, the eggs will be laid on the grass. I have had no difficulty 

 in getting species of Satyrince to oviposit, though I have often failed 

 with butterflies of other families. I will now proceed to give in detail 

 the results of my experiments. 



* Cat. Lep. Mns. E. I. C. pi. viii, fig. 9, larva ; 9a, pupa (1829). 

 t Lep. Cey. vol. i, pi. ix, figs. 2c, larva and pupa (1880). 



X Trans. Eut. Soc. Lond. 1884, pi. xiv, figs. 2, larva, just before turning to a 

 pupa ; 2?>, pupa. 



