ABUNDANCE OF BUTTERFLIES. 



75 



Mr. Bates obtained 550 species, and these on the whole 

 surpassed those of Para in variety and beauty. Mr. 

 Bates thus speaks of a favourite locality on the margin 

 of the lake near Ega : — " The number and variety of 

 gaily-tinted butterflies, sporting about in this grove 

 on sunny days, were so great, that the bright moving 

 flakes of colour gave quite a character to the physiog- 

 nomy of the place. It was impossible to walk far 

 without disturbing flocks of them from the damp sand 

 at the edge of the water, where they congregated to 

 imbibe the moisture. They were of almost all colours, 

 sizes, and shapes ; I noticed here altogether eighty 

 species, belonging to twenty -two distinct genera. The 

 most abundant, next to the very common sulphur- 

 yellow and orange-coloured kinds, were about a dozen 

 species of Eunica, which are of large size and conspicuous 

 from their liveries of glossy dark blue and purple. A 

 superbly adorned creature, the Callithea Markii, having 

 wings of a thick texture, coloured sapphire-blue and 

 orange, was only an occasional visitor. On certain days, 

 when the weather was very calm, two small gilded species 

 (Symmachia Trochilus and Colubris) literally swarmed 

 on the sands, their glittering wings lying wide open 

 on the flat surface."^ 



When we consider that only sixty -four species of butter- 

 flies have been found in Britain and about 1 50 in Germany, 

 many of which are very rare and local, so that these 

 numbers are the result of the work of hundreds of 

 collectors for a long series of years, we see at once the 

 immense wealth of the equatorial zone in this form 

 of life. 



^ The Naturalist ov. the Amazons, 2nd edit. p. 331. 



