TEINOPALPUS. 511 
" This splendid insect is peculiar to Sikkim, and is found only in the forest 
region from about COOO to 10,000 feet elevation. Unless its habits are 
known, it is most difficult to capture, on account of its remarkably strong, 
rapid, and darting flight, and its habits of resting on high trees, from which 
it flies only during a few hours of the morning, during the rare intervals of 
sunshine which prevail in these cloudy, damp, and rainy forests. The female, 
Avhich seldom or never flies in the same places as the male, is so extremely 
rare that, though for many years high rewards have been ofl"ered for it to the 
natives who make a business of catching insects, only six or seven in all are 
known to have been taken, and these mostly by chance in places outside the 
forest. 
" In order to take the male, one must go early in the morning in the 
months of June, July, or August, to one of the few spots in the neighbour- 
hood of Darjeeling where a little cleared space is found on the summit of a 
mountain top. Birch Hill, Sinchul, and Tonglo are all suitable places ; but 
the top of Sinchul, called Tiger Hill, which is over 8000 feet elevation, is the 
best, as it is surrounded by a large tract of virgin forest. If the morning is 
bright and sunny, about 8 o'clock one may expect to see Teinopalpus flying 
round the tops of the trees, and occasionally settling, but usually out of reach. 
The natives lay baits of some evil-smelling nature to attract the insect, as is 
done in Europe to attract Apatura iris, and with patience and the skilful use 
of a long-handled net sometimes succeed in taking two or three in a morning 
in this manner. The insects are so strong and active in the net, however, 
that they are difficult to get in a perfect state, and always command a high 
price, even at Darjeeling. The flight is l^sually over by 11 a.m., even if the 
morning continues fine, which is very rarely the case during the rainy season. 
I have seen and taken Tehioj^alpus as high as 10,500 feet on the top of 
Tonglo, and also at Tendong and Rikisum, and I believe it occurs as far east- 
ward as Buxa. The pupa has been found by Mr. Knyvett attached to the 
leaves of Daphne nipalensis, a plant which is used for making a fine strong 
paper in Nepal, and a female has been bred by him from one of these pupae. 
This plant is probably the food-plant of the larva, and grows at 7-9000 feet 
in the virgin forests where the insect occurs." {Elwes, Trans. Enf. Soc. Lond. 
1888, p. 421.) 
