130 



SUMATRA, 



[chap, VI il 



escape pereeciitinn. Two otber species of this same section 

 (Papilio antiplius and Fa]nlio puly]>Iiuntcn) ;uu so closely 

 imitated by two female loiins of Tapilio Llieseus (which 

 comes ill the same section with Menmon), that they com- 

 pletely deceived the Dutch entomologist De Haiin, and he 

 accordingly classed thera as the same spc^-ies ! 



But the most curious fact connected with these distinct 

 forms is, that they are hoth the offspring of either form. 

 A single brood of larva3 were bred Lii Java by a Dutch 

 entomologist, and produced males as well as tailed and 

 tailless females, and there is every reason to believe that 

 tbis is always the case, and that forms intermediate in 

 character never occur. To illustrate these phenomena, let 

 us suppose a roaming Englishman in some remote island 

 to have two ^vives — one a black-haired red-skinned 

 Indian, the other a woolly-headed sooty-skinned negress ; 

 and that instead of the cliildren being mulattoes of brown 

 or dusky tints, mingling the characteristics of each parent 

 in varying degrees, all the boys should be as fair-skinned 

 and blue-eyed as their father, while the ^^irls should 

 altogether resemble their mothers. This would be thought 

 strange enough, but the case of these butterflies is yet 

 more extraordinary, for each mother is capable not only of 

 producing male olJspring like the father, and fenu\le like 

 herself, but also other females like her fellow wife, and 

 altogether differing from herself ! 



The other species to which I have to direct attention is 

 the Kallima paralekta, a butterfly of the same family 

 group as our Purple Emperor, and of about the same size 

 or larger. Its ujjper surfaee is of a rich purple, variously 

 tinged with ash colour, and across the fore wings there is 

 a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on the ^ing it is 

 very conspicuous. This species was not uncommon in dry 

 woods and thickets, and 1 often endeavoured to capture it 

 without success, for after flying a short distance it woidd 

 enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and however care- 

 fully I crept up to the spot I could never discover it tiU 

 it would suddenly start out again and then disappear in a 

 similar place. At length I was fortunate enough to see 

 the exact spot where the butterfly settled, and though I 

 lost sight of it for some time, I at length discovered that it 



