928 Journal of a Trip to the Burenda Pass in 1836. [Nov. 



Figs. 8 and 9. " Large cabbage butterfly ;" " Pontia brassicee." This is a very 

 common species, appearing in March, April, May, June, and July. In the latter 

 month it is scarcer, as are all the hill species, owing to the constant cloudy and 

 rainy weather. The larva feeds on the cabbage, turnip, and other plants. 



Figs. 10 and 11. " Small cabbage butterfly ;" " Pontia rapes." This is also a 

 common species during the summer months. 



Fig. 12. " Brimstone or sulphur colored butterfly ;" " Gonepteryx rhamni." 

 This beautiful insect is very common at Simla and the interior. It appears as 

 early as March, and is one of the latest on the wing in autumn. There is another 

 species or variety found here in March and April, which has the superior wings 

 of a bright sulphur like the male, and the posterior wings nearly white as in the 

 female. 



Fig. 13. " Black-veined white butterfly ;" " Pieris cratagi." The most nume- 

 rous of all and of every size during May and June. The pupa is supported by a 

 silken band round it. 



3 Coleoptera. — Beetles, Lucanida, or stag-beetles. Royle figures a fine species 

 of stag-beetle, which is not uncommon at Simla in July, under the name of 

 " Lucanus lunifer." The female is not given, but in color it is the same, want- 

 ing as usual the large jaws of the male, and being inferior in size ; both sexes are 

 highly pubescent when recently and carefully captured. 



, The color is a deep olive brown ; head, thorax and elytra thickly clothed with 

 soft haix-s of a pale mouse color. The jaws of the female are short and stout 

 with a square tooth in the middle. The legs are all spiny. Length of the male 

 from the tip of the jaws two inches and a half ; female one inch and a half. In 

 addition to these I have collected here and at Mahassti, four or five other species. 

 The food of the Lucanida being yet but imperfectly known, although it is 

 supposed to be the sap of trees, it may not be amiss to remark that I have repeat- 

 edly found them feeding at the base of oak trees, their bodies half buried in the 

 earth, wounding the origin of the roots with their jaws and greedily sucking up 

 the juice as it exuded. 



Cerambicidce, Capricorn Beetles, I have taken more than 20 of the larvae of 

 one species out of a decayed oak tree. The insect which destroys timber in the 

 plains, which is often heard gnawing in the legs of tables and chairs, and usually 

 known by the name of the u Carpenter" from the noise it makes in boring ; is the 

 larva of a species of Capricorn beetle. 



Elaleridce, click beetles. These are the beetles, that, when laid on their backs, 

 can by a sudden jerk of the head and thorax, throw themselves again on their 

 legs. In my school-boy days, they were known by the name of " backjumpey." 

 There is a very common beetle at Simla during the rainy season, which I be- 

 lieve to be the " Scarabams Phorbanta" of Olivier's insects. It is chiefly found 

 in heaps of cow-dung, Olivier gives Senegal as the habitat, but his characters 

 which I subjoin, agree so closely with my insect, that I must consider them 

 identical. 



