394 L. de Niceville & Dr. L. Martin — Butterflies of Sumatra. [No. 3, 
does great damage to the beautiful green leaves of the young cocoa-nut 
palms, Cocos nucifera , Linnaeus, on which the larva feeds, and which after 
some while present the appearance of ugly dried-up brushes. The larva 
also ate the leaves of other palms in Dr. Martin’s garden at Bindjei, for 
instance the African oil palm and the common Palmyra or fan-leaf 
palm. The caterpillars live socially when young, but separate after 
changing their last skin. They are green with reddish-brown hairs. 
The larva of a large Skipper, Hidari irava, Moore, feeds at the same 
time on the leaves of Cocos nucifera , and the two species often have a 
severe struggle to live together, in which the more robust hesperid, 
which secures a shelter for itself by spinning the leaves together, is 
generally victorious. The pupa is uniform light green, and hangs per¬ 
pendicularly on horizontal leaves. The butterfly appears most 
commonly in December and January, after which time only single 
specimens are seen. In the daytime it is only found in places where 
there is deep shade, it never ventures out into the open sunlight, but is 
most active after sunset, and like Melanitis comes sometimes to the 
lamps. In its prediliction for shade it often enters houses and sheds. 
It is a very variable species. 
109. Amathusia schoenbergi, Honrath. 
A. schonbergi , Honratli, Berl. Ent. Zeitsch., vol. xxxi, p. 347, pi. vi, fig. 1, 
male (1887). 
This species was originally described from Tanyong Malim, Perak, 
Malay Peninsula. It appears to be a distinct species, while A. ochraceo- 
fusca , Honrath, and A. phidippus , var. perakana , Honrath, both from 
Perak, seem only to be varietal forms of A. pliidippus, Johanssen. It is 
the Amathusia of the forest, as it occurs only in high forest from Selesseh 
to Bekantschan. As in the forests there are no cocoa-nut trees, that 
palm being nearly domesticated, A. pliidippus does not occur there, but 
is replaced by the far finer and deeper-coloured A. schoenbergi. Dr. 
Martin’s Javan collector Saki observed a female of this species deposit¬ 
ing eggs on Areca nibong , which palm only grows in the forest, and there 
is not any doubt that the larva of A. schoenbergi feeds on this plant, 
round groups of which Dr. Martin always noticed the imagines flying. 
It is, however, a very rare species. 
110. Thaumantis odana, Godart. 
Grose Smith. Hagen as klugius. Staudinger. Distant. The com¬ 
monest species of the genus in Sumatra, next to T. lucipor , Westwood ; 
it is found from Bekantschan to Soengei Batoe, and is therefore the 
most alpine species of the genus. 
