88 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST 



Indra is strictly an alpine butterfly, at home on sharp, rocky 

 peaks of 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height, and so far as I have 

 observed in California, not coming down the mountain side lower 

 than 9,000 feet. It is peculiar in its habits as well as in its habitat, 

 in that while most Papilios are good feeders, Indra spends its time 

 on those high, bare rocks in sunning itself when the sun shines, 

 and in occasionally starting up energetically to flirt with or to 

 fight some other butterfly, but never wasting any time in feeding 

 on flowers to prolong its life. 



It is the most difficult of all California butterflies to capture, as 

 it frequents the most inaccessible places, and is moreover exceed- 

 ingly wary. I have spent much valuable time (for on the top of a 

 peak 10,000 feet high, time is always valuable), in watching it to 

 learn if possible the secret of its food-plant, but always unsuccess- 

 fully. Because it does not feed on flowers, and for other reasons, 

 I believe that the life of the individual butterfly is very short, 

 indeed, say from three to eight days, according to the weather, 

 and that its life as a butterfly is wholly spent in play and in the 

 reproduction of its species. 



The preliminary stages of egg, larvae, and chrysalis, are wholly 

 unknown, as also the food-plant. 



28. Papilio Pergamus. Never before figured in any work. 

 Plate IV ; Figures 28, b. 



Fig 28, Male, San Bernardino Mountains, May 12, 1888; 

 Author, 

 b, Female underside, San Bernardino Mountains, May 

 10, 1888; Author. 

 Here I have pleasure in showing you the upper and lower sides 

 of Papilio Pergamus, a rare butterfly, and one that has never 

 before been illustrated anywhere. The species was published by 

 H. Edwards, in 1874, but the butterfly has always been so rare 

 that but few people have ever seen a specimen of it. His descrip- 

 tion was written from one male specimen which was taken near 

 Santa Barbara in May, 1873, taken probably by himself; the 

 description moreover was brief and indefinite, possibly because 

 his example might have been worn or defective. For these rea- 

 sons, chiefly, as I suppose, and also because as years passed and 

 no others were taken, the impression gained credence that after all 

 perhaps Pergamus was only Indra; at any rate, Pergamus has 



