306 
WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA 
visit was spoilt by heavy rain. A bluff on the outskirts of the 
village displayed sufficient flowers to attract a fair number of insects, 
the best of which was the large Skipper, Prenes evadnes, Cram., the 
only one that I met with, but a lane leading from the village south¬ 
wards to a ford proved a better collecting ground. This lane, bounded 
on either side by a wet ditch and a flowery hedge, had an English 
look that was delightfully refreshing. Here were a number of 
the commoner butterflies, conspicuous among them the Brimstone, 
Callidryas eubule , f. sennae , of both sexes, though it was not as 
common as in Barbados or Jamaica ; Danaida archippus (plexippus ); 
Actinote antaeas, the beautiful yellow and black Heliconius chari- 
thonius charithonius ; the brilliant red, black and white Anartia 
amalthea, flying, as usual, close to the water, but unfortunately in 
poor condition; the dingy Satyrine, Euptychia hermes (camerta, Cram.), 
together with its more attractive white-striped congener, E. hesione; 
there were also several males of the Common White of those 
parts, Leptophobia aripa, Boisd., and a male of the common Terias 
albula, a white member of a yellow genus. But besides these 
familiar forms there were several of greater interest, at all events to 
one new to South America. The small Nymphalines, Phyciodes lelex, 
Bates, and P. liriope , Cram.; a female of Terias nise, two male 
Sphaenogona arbela , Hiibn., of an unusually pale form; a female of 
the fine Daptonoura lycimnia; a specimen of the large Ithomiine, 
Mechanitis veritabilis , Butl.; the black and white Lycaenid, Polyniphe 
dumenilii, Godart, and the Skipper, Chiomara gesta, H.-Schaff. But 
there were in addition several butterflies in that narrow lane which 
I did not meet with elsewhere in Venezuela; conspicuous among them, 
on the flowers of Lantana camara, was a specimen of the long¬ 
winged, richly silver-plated Bione juno, Cram., strikingly resembling 
Colaenis julia, Eabr. (which flew alongside of it), as regards its upper 
surface, but with a silvery underside that at once recalled the 
European Argynnis lathonia, Linn. Even more attractive was the 
essentially Neotropical Nymphaline, Myscelia cyaniris , Hew., grey 
with white stripes, shot with brilliant violet; conspicuous as this 
looks in the cabinet it is by no means so conspicuous when resting, 
as it is fond of doing, on light grey bark; one of them had suffered 
a symmetrical injury to both hind-wings suggestive of the attack of 
a bird. A black, white, and red butterfly seen fluttering at the bottom 
of a ditch turned out to be a small male of the truly exquisite 
Papilio cercas cercas , Cram., perfect in shape and finish, and with a 
marvellous blue gleam in certain lights ; like many of its aristocratic 
genus it had an odour like musty straw. Less striking than the last 
