■^ THE LEPIDOPTERA OF CETLON. 



for the same destination. It is curious to observe that butterflies of a totally different 

 kind, when they happen to come within the range of one of these moving columns, 

 are, for a period, carried away apparently by the same impulse and fly in company 

 with it, bat are soon seen to be moving off independently as at first. Reverting to 

 the Euplceas, these insects, when stopping for a short time to refresh themselves 

 upon an attractive flower, are with little difficulty captured by the hand ; and then 

 simulate death for a few seconds, soon flying away. They are so tenacious of life 

 as to be able to bear considerable pressure between the finger and thumb without 

 being killed ; they exsert at the time a peculiar long silky anal appendage of a 

 bright yellow colour, which is almost immediately retracted into its sheath. Birds 

 and other insectivorous animals do not appear to be partial to these butterflies as 

 food ; they are probably unpalatable to them owing to their possessing a peculiar 

 odour. 



" The larvEe I have most frequently found feeding upon leaves of the species of 

 Fig and Dogbane. The suspended chrysalids are brilliantly metallic in colouring. 

 Hestia Jasonia, the finest Ceylonese species of the group, affects the glades of 

 woods and is notable for its graceful flight, rising and descending almost like a 

 gossamer in the air, and well deserving the name of " the Sylph," which is commonly 

 given to it." (Note hy Br. Thwaites.) 



o 



Genus NECTARIA. 



Wectaria, Dalmann, in Billb. Enum. Ins. p. 76 (1820). 



Hestia (pa.rt), Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schinett. p. 15 (1816). Doubleday. 



Wings semidiaphanous, large : forewing lengthened, triangular, costa slightly 

 arched, apex quite convex, exterior margin very oblique, waved, posterior margin 

 short, shghtly concave in middle ; costal vein extending to haff its length, subcostal 

 with first branch emitted at some distance before end of the cell and anastomosed 

 to costal near its end, second branch from near end of the cell, third and fourth 

 at equal distances beyond, the fourth terminating above, and the fifth below the 

 apex ; ceU long ; upper discocellular inwardly oblique and slightly angled near 

 subcostal, lower outwardly convex, first radial from angle of the upper and second 

 from near iipper end of lower discocellular; three median branches wide apart, 

 submedian very recurved : hiudwiug lengthened, oval, costal margin curved, apex 

 convex and more or less prolonged, exterior margin slightly waved, anal angle 

 convex ; costal vein short, with a basal forked spur ; subcostal branches wide 

 apart, first very short; disco cellular s bent outward at their middle, the radial 

 emitted from the angle ; median branches wide apart, submedian and internal vein 

 shghtly recurved. Body long, slender ; palpi porrect, pilose above and beneath, tip 

 pointed; legs long, slender ; antenna slender. 



