30 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
phalidce, Lycceniclce, Fierince, and many Erycinidce ; but most of these, 
when temporarily settled, open and shut the wings, or keep them a 
little apart. The Papilionince usually settle with wings erect, but are 
fond of resting with the wings expanded, in such a way that the hind- 
wings are more or less covered by the fore-wings ; and they have further 
the peculiar habit, when visiting flowers, of keeping the wings in rapid 
vibration. The Lyccenidco universally, when settled temporarily, pro- 
ceed to move the erect or half-erect hind-wings alternately up and 
down."^ A large number of Erycinidcc and some Ilesperidm keep their 
wings fully extended when at rest on leaves or on the ground, but 
many of the latter have the fore-wings only, and a few all the wings, 
erect. It is not easy to discover butterflies when really in a state of 
prolonged rest or of sleep, but those noticed lower the closed front 
wings between the hind-wings, so that only the apical part of the former 
remains exposed. It is most noticeable that, with very rare exceptions, 
this apical part of the fore-wings is coloured in accordance with the 
under side of the hind-wings, and that by this attitude the conspicuous 
colours and marks so often found on the disk of the under side of the 
fore-wings are completely concealed.^ While most butterflies perch on 
flowers or leaves, many are fond of sunning themselves on bare twigs 
or on the ground. Others (among the Nymjphalinm and Satyrince) 
prefer the stems of trees, and many of these always sit so that their 
heads are downward. Some of the same groups commonly settle on 
rocks or on the sides of overhanging banks ; and it is not rare among 
these, as well as among those that frequent tree-trunks, to find little 
companies of a dozen or more sitting close together in a sheltered 
cranny. Such cases recall the hibernating Nymplialinm and Fierince 
of Northern Europe and other countries, which in the autumn find 
refuges in which to sleep away the winter, emerging in the ensuing 
spring. 
Male butterflies usually make their appearance before the females, 
and appear, as a rule, to be more numerous. The less active and more 
retiring habits of the females no doubt render this disproportion in 
numbers greater apparently than it really is, but observation has con- 
vinced me that there is in most cases a decided majority of males.^ It 
^ I believe that Swainson, Zool. Illustr., ist Series (1821-22), was the first, in his 
notice of Thecla {Deudorix) Galathea, to record this curious habit. It is practised by every 
member of the Family that I have watched when settled, and it seems not improbable — 
looking to the brilliant eye-like metallic spot and (very often) adjacent tail or tails at the 
posterior angle of the hind-wings of these butterflies — that the movement may serve to 
accentuate these ornaments, either in rivalry or in menace. 
2 An instance of remarkably different port of the wings in temporary and in real repose 
was discovered by me in 1 857, in the case of the well-known Hesperide Thanaos Tages of 
Europe. This butterfly holds its wings horizontally when settled temporarily, but I found 
two at rest in the evening with the wings deflected exactly as in a Bombycide or Noctuide 
Moth. This observation has recently been confirmed by Mr. Frohawk (see Entomologist, 
1884, p. 49). 
3 See a full collection of evidence on this point in Darwin's Descent of Man, &c., vol. i 
p. 309. 
