328 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



but never anything quite on the same scale. It had rained hard 

 during the two preceding days, and the earth forming the banks at 

 the edge of the path round the lake was thoroughly damp, though not 

 soppy, and just then steamy from the hot sun. As already stated, at 

 a distance of every few yards, there was a congregation of butterflies, 

 varying in numbers from about 250 to fully 1000, with many 

 smaller ones at almost every step. The large companies consisted 

 of Erebia mnestra, E. melampus, E. tyndarus, E. euryale, Hesperia 

 alveits, Argynnis ■ aglaia, and A. niobe, in "comparatively small 

 numbers, the great mass, however, of each group consisting of 

 "blues" — Plebeius argus (argyrognomon), Agriades corydon, Polyowmatus 

 eros, and Cwpido minima — the first-named outnumbering all the others 

 by from 10 or 20 to 1. They sat motionless until one or two 

 quarrelsome individuals pushed or hustled their nearest neighbours to 

 the edge of the crowd, A. corydon being especially prominent in this 

 respect. Small as C. minima is, the individuals held their own against 

 the other species, and the specimens were in the best possible condition, 

 having here, at 6000ft. above the sea, only quite recently emerged. 

 The same habit is frequent in India, for de Niceville says (p. 10) : 

 " The males of most of the Lycamids are particularly fond of 

 sucking up the moisture from the damp sandy sides of hill 

 streams .... The females probably fly much less than the 

 males, and keep more to the jungles, settling on trees and bushes 

 where they are difficult to follow and catch." Certainly, in the Alps, 

 the females prefer the flowery banks rising above the zigzag paths that 

 occur almost everywhere. The peculiar movement of the hindwings, 

 common in both sexes, by means of which they are moved alternately 

 up and down, and obtain what appears to be, in a measure, a rotary 

 movement, must have been noticed by everyone. Trimen says (South 

 African Butts., i., p. 30) : " This curious habit is practised by every 

 member of the family that I have watched when settled, and it seems 

 not improbable — looking to the brilliant eye-like metallic spot, and (very 

 often) adjacent tail or tails at the posterior angle of the hindwings of 

 these butterflies — that the movement may serve to accentuate these 

 ornaments either in rivalry or menace." Bell's remark (Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 xlii., p. 128) on the meaning and use of the black, often silver- or 

 orange-centred, anal spots of the hindwings of some Lycamids is 

 interesting. He writes : " Put a ' blue ' having such spots — Virachola, 

 Camena, Opt, Creon, Arhopala, etc. — on a leaf or surface in its natural 

 position, with the wings closed over the back ; the black spots then 

 come into juxtaposition with a flimsy tail to each one, which moves in 

 the tiniest breeze. Looking one day at a ' blue ' on a leaf in the 

 jungle, I took the spots for the head of a Mantis, and, as if the resem- 

 blance were not strong enough when at rest, the movement so common 

 among Lycamids, of the hindwings one on another (as if the butterfly 

 were rubbing them together gently) gave the ' Mantis 1 head ' the 

 appearance of moving from side 1 to side. It was very quaint, and it 

 struck me forcibly that it would do well to frighten small insects — 

 ants, etc. — or, perhaps, birds and lizards would take it for a Mantis, 

 and thus get the ends of the wing instead of the Lycamid's body." 



The Lyca'nines are very largely represented in the Palaearctic region, 

 almost one-sixth of the butterfly fauna of this district belonging to this 

 group. The subfamily is distributed throughout the whole area, from the 



