34 
RIO DE JANEIRO 
CHAP. 
he knows not how to express his feelings. The general effect 
frequently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery of the Opera- 
house or the great theatres. I never returned from these excur¬ 
sions empty handed. This day I found a specimen of a curious 
fungus, called Hymenophallus. Most people know the English 
Phallus, which in autumn taints the air with its odious smell : 
this, however, as the entomologist is aware, is to some of our 
beetles a delightful fragrance. So was it here ; for a Strongylus, 
attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in 
my hand. We here see in two distant countries a similar relation 
between plants and insects of the same families, though the species 
of both are different. When man is the agent in introducing 
into a country a new species this relation is often broken: as one 
instance of this I may mention that the leaves of the cabbages 
and lettuces, which in England afford food to such a multitude 
of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near Rio are untouched. 
During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of in¬ 
sects. A few general observations on the comparative import¬ 
ance of the different orders may be interesting to the English 
entomologist. The large and brilliantly-coloured Lepidoptera 
bespeak the zone they inhabit, far more plainly than any other 
race of animals. I allude only to the butterflies ; for the moths, 
contrary to what might have been expected from the rankness 
of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer numbers 
than in our own temperate regions. I was much surprised at 
the habits of Papilio feronia. 1 This butterfly is not uncommon, 
and generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high 
flier, yet it very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On 
these occasions its head is invariably placed downwards ; and 
its wings are expanded in a horizontal plane, instead of being 
folded vertically, as is commonly the case. This is the only 
butterfly which I have ever seen that uses its legs for running. 
Not being aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I 
cautiously approached with my forceps, shuffled on one side 
just as the instrument was on the point of closing, and thus 
escaped. But a far more singular fact is the power which this 
species possesses of making a noise. 2 Several times when a pair, 
1 See page 39. 
2 Mr. Doubleday has lately described (before the Entomological Society, March 
3rd, 1845 ) a peculiar structure in the wings of this butterfly, which seems to be the 
