6166 



Nalural'History Collectors 



tingaish them on the wing ; and always on capturing what I look for 

 an Ithomia, and found when in the net, to be a Leptalis mimicking it, 

 I could scarcely restrain an exclamation of surprise. One species 

 imitates exactly 1. Cidonia, another I. Onega, which is more abundant 

 at St. Paulo than at any other place, and a third another unnamed 

 species of Ilhomia, also one of the most abundant species. The 

 resemblance between Leptales and Ithomia?, two groups of Diurnes 

 much more widely separated than they appear in our classifications, 

 is repeated in the case of a group of Bombycide moths, of which 

 there are at least two genera imitating the Ithomiae and the larger 

 Heliconiaj. One of them, which I saw first at the British Museum, 

 exactly imitates Ithomia Flora; at Ega there is one imitating in the 

 same w^ay Ithomia Fluonia of the same locality. At Fonte Boa 

 appears another standing in the same relation to I. ^Elia of the same 

 place, and at St. Paulo there are others occurring simultaneously with 

 the peculiar Ithomiae of the district. These analogies to me appear 

 one of the most beautiful phenomena in Nature. 



I am afraid I am occupying too much space with the details of my 

 doings in the Diurnes. In the genus Papilio I saw little that was new 

 to me : there occured a sharp-winged species apparentl}^ the same as, 

 or nearly allied to, a species only found near Para; the female, 

 however, has spotless fore wings. Crassus was a common species in 

 all other localities, being one of the very rarest. In Pieris I found 

 two new species. The curious P. Lorena was rather common, I took 

 also its female, which is coloured orange and black, almost like a 

 Heliconia. The Glaucopes and Euchromiae were the only groups of 

 moths at all numerous: in fact, I saw ver}^ few species of the other 

 families ; but of the above two genera there were many most beautiful 

 species, many, perhaps twelve or fifteen, new to me; and some so 

 common, that they flew up at almost every step from the low herbage. 

 Their habit is to fly quietly, but low, settling on leaves, but remaining 

 on the upper surface only for an instant, hitching over the edge to 

 conceal themselves underneath. 



The locality yielded me a good many species of Coleoptera ; but 

 generally I consider the district not to be productive in large and 

 handsome species : I attribute this chiefly to the cold clayey nature 

 of the soil. In the Geodephaga 1 was glad on the first day to ob- 

 serve that the Odontocheilae, the group of Cicindelae inhabiting the 

 forest shades of the whole country, were different in species from 

 those of Ega and other stations; I found at once five species new to 



