3 2o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



where the butterflies are brought in the largest number and most 

 various forms from the stream of Charybdis. When I last spring 

 asked my colleague there, Prof. Kleinenberg, to send me a few 

 specimens of a naked shelless species (Pneumodermon), my courte- 

 ous friend sent me a goodly number of other butterflies, and 

 wrote: "I am sorry I can not send Pneumodermon. While it 

 was formerly so abundant that one could hardly make a haul 

 without having some in his net, there are now none here." The 

 same Job's comfort came from the zoological station at Naples, 

 which usually afforded remarkably fine sea-animals, and where I 

 myself had obtained Pneumodermon two years before. I received 

 a splendid lot of other butterflies, which were so well preserved 

 that one could almost believe they were still alive ; but Pneumo- 

 dermon was not among them. 



In Messina, however, is found the round butterfly, Tiedemannia 

 (Fig. 2), of gigantic proportions when compared with the others, 

 which somewhat resembles the mourning-cloak of the land-snails, 



Fig. 6.— Clinopsis Krohnii. Fig. 7.— Clionb borealis. Fig. 8.— Limacina arctica. 



but is otherwise of like structure with the Cymbulice. It also 

 has a water-clear shell, but much smaller and entirely smooth ; 

 its wings are united into a large disk, and its mouth is drawn out 

 into a long, double-tipped snout, which the animal carries in swim- 

 ming like a rakish mast between the wings. 



All the sea-butterflies mentioned above are predatory, but I 

 am inclined to believe that certain gorbellies, which are compara- 

 ble to corpulent night-moths, and might be called thick butter- 

 flies (Hyalcea), are also, besides, plant-eaters. They tumble around 

 clumsily at Messina and Naples, are occasionally driven to Villa- 

 franca, and are distinguished by their swollen, brownish shell, 

 extending into a point behind, and having a narrow opening, out 

 of which rise the short and massive three-lobed wings. They 

 usually bear ragged or ribbon-like appendages of a brown or dark- 



