5734 Notes on an Excursion 



and yet in the six weeks I spent in the neighbourhood I could not 

 obtain a specimen of it. The distribution of these curious monkeys 

 is very remarkable. There appear to be three species, two of which 

 I have seen plenty of alive at Ega, where they are very expensive. 

 They are all three confined to the low lands constituting the delta of 

 the Japura, none of them reaching so far east as Ega or so far west 

 as St. Paulo. The white one (B. calvus ?) is confined to the eastern 

 part of the delta, and the red one to the western part. Some few 

 leagues within the main mouth of the Japurd is found the third spe- 

 cies, ashy coloured, the face not red. This last I have not yet seen. 



Entomology at Fonte Boa promised very well in the beginning; but 

 after the 4th of January a period of heavy rains set in which inter- 

 fered very much with my success. On the first day a magnificent new 

 Nymphalide, which settled on a leaf of a tree before me in one of the 

 broad forest pathways, gave me great hopes of future success. It 

 proved to be an aberrant species of Catagramma, coloured above 

 similar to C. cynosura, but quite plain beneath like the Epicaliae, so 

 that it seems intermediate between the two genera. 1 did not suc- 

 ceed in finding a second specimen. A few days afterwards I got a 

 specimen of another new Eubagis, and after I had beaten the woods 

 three weeks I alighted on a charming dry hollow, quite alive with 

 Ithomiae, comprising I. Illinissa, I. ^Elia, I. Cyrianassa, T. Fluonia, ano- 

 ther common species, and four new species, three of which are very 

 interesting, being intermediate between I. Illinissa and I. ^Elia. I 

 captured a series of each, and found, notwithstanding their singularly 

 close resemblance, that each species kept itself perfectly distinct. 

 Sometimes, when a number of very nearly allied species of butterflies, 

 such as Mechanitis and Ithomia, are found flying together in the same 

 locality, the idea of hybridity suggests itself almost irresistibly; but I 

 have closely watched for proof of this, and have found none. On the 

 contrary, at Ega, where four species of Mechanitis are about equally 

 abundant in the same confined space, I have frequently captured 

 pairs in copula; the male and the female invariably agree precisely, 

 spot for spot and line for line. I have not yet seen Ithomia in copula, 

 except once, and then the two individuals were precisely the same in 

 markings. That a number of allied species should be found together 

 is to be explained by the fact that both genera are very gregarious : 

 one limited spot, of a few yards in extent, will be the only place, at 

 one station, where you find any Ithomiae, and there all the species of 

 the district will be found assembled. At Fonte Boa I found two 

 Ithomia haunts, the one above mentioned, and another where four 



