NaturaUHisfory Collectors, 



6103 



a roostiiig-place of vultures very attractive to tlicm ; here nearly all 

 the fine Nymphalidae of the locality and many of the handsomest 

 Erycinidae and Hesperidae, were accustomed to congregate. Some- 

 limes, on hot sunny mornings, they were in such numbers that 

 the place seemed alive with them. Of Catagrammas, there were six 

 species, the rarest and most beautiful of which was a grand new spe- 

 cies I discovered at Tunantins last year, and which is described and 

 figured by Mr. Hewitson as C. excelsior : I saw only three of them 

 during the whole of my stay and captured them all. All the Cata- 

 grammae are very similar in habits, delighting to hover about muddy 

 places, but are very wary, sailing away at one's approach up to in- 

 accessible heights on the surrounding trees, sometimes settling on the 

 foliage, sometimes on the tree-trunks. Besides excelsior there is 

 another large species, scarlet and black, very common, especially 

 in the streets of the village ; next to this, C. Kunomia, Hewitson, was 

 most abundant ; of these two I captured the females within the 

 shades of the forest where I never saw a single male : the other three 

 were C. cynosura, var. pyga and Clymena. Of Epicalia, in the 

 locality named, I observed seven species, viz., the three well-known 

 orange-banded species, Salacia, Capenas, Hewitson, Ancea, and a pro- 

 bably new species allied to this last, having a belt of bhie across all 

 the wings : it was much rarer than the A.ncea and excessively difficult 

 to capture. Of the grand genus Pandora I took two species. P. 

 Prola, a species found, as I have understood, in the hot valleys on the 

 eastern slopes of the Andes in New Granada, I was glad to find for 

 the first time ; St. Paulo appears to be its lowest limit on the Amazon 

 downwards. Its habits struck me as partly those of Ageronia and 

 partly of Prepona, and 1 have not much doubt the three genera are 

 really related nearly to one another. Pandora Rola was quite a com- 

 mon insect down to the end of October, flying boldly about the 

 streets, constantly entering the open windows of the houses, settling 

 on the white-washed walls ; but it was more easily to be captured at 

 the roosting-place of the vultures: there also in January I captured 

 a specimen of another larger species, somewhat resembling the 

 P. Procilla of Hewitson. Of Ageronia there were, besides four com- 

 mon species, two new ones, one quite abundant^ the other very rare. 

 Preponoe, allied to our Apatura Iris at home, and like it, attracted by 

 all kinds of ordure, were daily to be seen in the same locality. 

 Amongst a number of the common species, I captured two species new 

 to me, both having much sharper wings and brilliant blue ocelli to the 

 under surface of the posterior pair. In the same place were about a 



