386 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



knight errantry any intruder, no matter how much bigger than itself. 

 It is particularly gamesome a few hours after sunrise; taking its stand 

 on some prominent leaf of a bush, it rushes out upon every butterfly 

 that passes by ; then it performs such swift and tortuous evolutions 

 that the eye is unable to follow it ; this lasts only for a few seconds, 

 for, having pursued the traveller' three or four yards, the butterfly 

 returns to the very same leaf to watch as before . . . This constancy 

 of resort to the individual leaf or twig is very singular and unaccount- 

 able; sometimes on an approach to one so situated, it has been alarmed 

 and flown to a considerable distance, but, taking a flight round, it 

 returns to the place, and, presently, there is the little thing alighting 

 on the very leaf again." Of the Indian Celastrinid species, de Niceville 

 says (Butts. India, etc., iii., p. 93) that the butterflies chiefly affect 

 trees and bushes, though the males may often be found in immense 

 quantities sucking up the moisture on damp spots. He further notes 

 (Butts, of Sumatra, p. 454) that the males of four of the Sumatran species, 

 C. limbatus, C. camenae, C. placida, and C. inusina, are caught in large 

 numbers on wet spots on roads, and on the sandy banks of small hill- 

 streams, but that the very scarce females can only be taken in the forest, 

 where they are looking for, and ovipositing on, the food -plants of the 

 larvae, or feeding on the flowers of certain Oompositae. Edwards 

 notes (Butts. Nth. Amer., i., Lye, p. 149) that G. pseudargiolus is the 

 earliest butterfly of the year on the Kanawha river, and that, by 

 April 3rd-4th, on a hot day, the imagines swarm along the sandy sides 

 of the creeks, gathering in clusters as close as they can sit in favourite 

 spots, motionless, with wings erect and closed, wholly intent on 

 extracting from the sand some fluid, no doubt delightful, etc. The 

 form r/ozora also affects wet places on the roadside in Central America. 

 The species of this tribe are widely distributed over the Oriental, 

 Pahearctic and Nearctic regions, extending all over the south of Asia 

 to Ceylon and Sumatra, de Niceville noting no fewer than eleven species 

 in the latter island (Butts, of Sumatra, pp. 452-454). It also occurs 

 throughout the East Indies to Borneo and New Guinea ; and two or 

 three species have been recorded from Australia (Bethune- Baker). 

 The tribe occurs in both the Palaearctic and Tropical regions of India 

 (de Niceville) ; it is better represented in the tropics than is generally 

 supposed ; 10 species, including C. haraldus, Fab., have been taken 

 in the Malay peninsula, 8 confined to high elevations ; also 7 in the 

 mountains of Eastern Java, and 4 in Celebes, besides C. duponchelii, 

 God. ( = ? C.paspa, Horsf.) in Sumba and Sambawa, and C. akasa in 

 Sambawa, at 4500ft. elevation (Doherty) ; of the 11 Sumatran species 

 only two occur in the plains, C. cossaea and C. puspa, all the others 

 are found in the mountains at high elevation, from Soengei Batoe to 

 the Central Plateau, and on the Plateau itself. Kirby says that 

 species of the genus are found in almost all parts of the world except 

 South America and Australia, and, as we have noted, species 

 have since been found in Australia. De Niceville states (Butts, 

 of India, etc., iii., p. 93) that, in India, it is found almost 

 everywhere except in the desert regions of Sind, and occurs at 

 considerable elevations in the Himalayas, whilst Doherty records 

 C. huegelii, in Kumaon from 3500ft. to 12000ft.; and he (Doherty) 

 has met with some species even at a greater elevation. He adds : "In the 

 outer Himalayas one species or another is more plentiful in individuals 



