394 L. de Niceville & Dr. L. Martin — Butterflies of Sumatra. [No. 3, 



does great damage to the beautiful gieen leaves of the young cocoa-nut 

 palms, Cocos nucifera, Linnseus, on which the larva feeds, and which after 

 some while present the appearance of ugly dried-up brushes. The larva 

 also ate the leaves of other palms in Dr. Martin's garden at Bindjei, for 

 instance the African oil palm and the common Palmyra or fan-leaf 

 palm. The caterpillars live socially when young, but separate after 

 changing their last skin. They are green with reddish-brown hairs. 

 The larva of a large Skipper, Ridari irava, Moore, feeds at the same 

 time on the leaves of Cocos nucifera, and the two species often have a 

 severe struggle to live together, in which the more robust hesperid, 

 which secures a shelter for itself by spinning the leaves together, is 

 generally victorious. The pupa is uniform light green, and hangs per- 

 pendicularly on horizontal leaves. The butterfly appears most 

 commonly in December and January, after which time only single 

 specimens are seen. In the daytime it is only found in places where 

 there is deep shade, it never venturos out into the open sunlight, but is 

 most active after sunset, and like Melanitis comes sometimes to the 

 lamps. In its prediliction for shade it often enters houses and sheds. 

 It is a very variable species. 



109. Amathusia schoenbergi, Honrath. 



A. achonbergi, Honrath, Berl. Ent. Zeitsch., vol. xxxi, p. 347, pi. vi, fig. 1, 

 male (1887). 



This species was originally described from Tanyong Malim, Perak, 

 Malay Peninsula. It appears to be a distinct species, while A. ochraceo- 

 fusca, Honrath, and A. phidippus, var. perakana, Honrath, both from 

 Peralc, seem only to be varietal forms of A. phiilippus, Johanssen. It is 

 the Amathusia of the forest, as it occurs only in high forest from Selesseh 

 to Bekantschan. As in the forests there are no cocoa-nut trees, that 

 palm being nearly domesticated, A. phiilippus does not occur there, but 

 is replaced by the far finer and deeper-coloured A. schoenbergi. Dr. 

 Martin's Javan collector Saki observed a female of this species deposit- 

 ing eggs on Areca nibovg, which palm only grows in the forest, and there 

 is not any doubt that the larva of A. schoenbergi feeds on this plant, 

 round groups of which Dr. Martin always noticed the imagines flying. 

 It is, however, a very rare species. 



110. Thaumantis odana, Godarfc. 



Grose Smith. Hagen as klugius. Staudinger. Distant. The com- 

 monest species of the genus in Sumatra, next to T. lucipor, Westwood ; 

 it is found from Bekantschan to Soengei Batoe, and is therefore the 

 must alpine species of the genus. 



