RHOPALOCERA MA LA YA NA , 



warlike intent. This constancy of resort to one individual leaf or twig is very singular and 

 unaccountable : sometimes on my approach to one so situated, it has been alarmed and flown 

 to a considerable distance, but, taking a flight round, it returns to the place; and presently 

 there is the little thing alighting on the leaf again. The playful pugnacity just noticed seems 

 almost peculiar to the Lycamdct " * It remains to be seen if these habits are restricted to the 

 western species alone, or whether, as is probable, similar proceedings may not be observed 

 among the Eastern Lyceenids* 



The family is universally distributed, and wherever butterflies exist it seems that Ltjacnida 

 are found. This particularly applies to the smaller species, which have even been brought 

 from the Arctic Regions, collected in 81° 45' N.+ 



In arranging the genera of this family as found in the Malay Peninsula, I have found 

 it convenient to separate them under the three following proposed Groups, which I think 

 will prove useful, aud which I trust— in our present superficial knowledge — are not altogether 

 unnatural : — 



Posterior wings without filamentous tail- like appendages I near the anal angle. - - CtmETABiA. 



„ with minute filamentous or prominent tail-like appendages near the 



anal angle. 



Posterior wings convex, about as broad as long. ..... Cast Ah aria, 



„ more or less elongate, distinctly longer than broad. - - A Pin* ah Li, 



Group CURETARIA, 



This proposed division contains some of the most interesting genera found in the whole 

 of the family, having singular and strongly marked structural peculiarities. It is, however, in 

 Tropica! and Subtropical Africa that it reaches its maximum in genera* of large and brilliantly 

 coloured species, § whilst in Tropical America it is represented by the genera Eumivw and 

 Trichonis, and in Australia by the genus Qgyris* It is also extensively, but more modestly, 

 represented throughout the whole remaining area of LyCfenid distribution, It is in this 

 division also that some of the most aberrant forms of the Lijc&ni&e are found. 



* ■ '..-iters from Alabama,' pp. 144-5. Elsewhere, in the same work {p. 87), the author describes the Tlitda a* often 

 returning after a flight, ** like the flycatchers among birds, to the same spot from whence they departed ; a projeotiug twig, or 

 the topmost leaf of a bnsh." 



f M*Laehlan, Joum. Linn. Sec., ZooL vol. xiv, p. Ill (1878). As regards local peculiarities of distribution, Mr. S. 

 fcJcudder, in comparing the u butterfly faunae of Eastern North America and of Europe," found that the M blues" were better 

 represented in Europe by "(38 to 18)"," whilst the 11 liair-Mrcnks" wi-re most abundant in America by M (20 to 10)." — {'Psyche/ 

 vol. ii. p. 112 (1878). 



; This may prove to be an uncurtain and illusory divisional character, if, as Herman Strecker reports on the North 

 American representative*, *' In nemo specie* the spring brood is tailless, whilst the summer generation of the same insect 

 ifl provided with those ornaments** (Lepid. Bhopal. & Heteroc, p. 81 (1874). In such a case, however, the markings of the 

 wings beneath would be einiikr, and I have not foil nil this to be the case with any of the species now enumerated. Many of 

 the figures hero given are deficient in those tail-like appendages OWfjog to their exceedingly fragile nature and their liability 

 to mutilation in the process of capture. Lieut. Gervase F. Matbew advises the collector to box all small buttorilu-s ahv, and 

 writes, "Abroad, in the tropics, where I have taken aud boxed numbers of email hijcainidm t I havu almost invariably found 

 their delicate caudal appendages as perfect as when first captured" {'Entomologist,' vol. x. p. &8). 



§ Amongst these African genera may be enumerated Mi?nacr<Ea, Pentila, Liptcna, Pkytttlct, Epitola, 'Hewitsonia, 

 and Drfotteura* 



