GENERAL NOTES. 
57 
Though the various theories of “Protection” amongst animals, i.e Protective 
Colouration, Warning Colours, etc. are still the subject of much dispute, and far from being 
thoroughly worked out, yet everyone admits that protection exists more or less in one form or 
another, and many butterflies seem to have carried protective colouration to a very high degree. 
Melanitis leda is one of the best examples here; Hcbomoia glciacippe and butterflies of the 
genus Precis are wonderfully inconspicuous when at rest with closed wings on stalks or leaves or 
on the ground; and although these insects are very brightly coloured on the upperside and spend 
the greater part of the day at flowers, with widely-expanded or fanning wings, yet in this case they 
are wide awake and on the alert and seldom stay long in one position; whereas when resting with 
closed wings they seem to be often in a half-drowsy condition, and will remain motionless for long 
periods. 
I think that in this part of the country Dragonflies, though exceedingly numerous, seldom 
destroy butterflies; but lately observed a very large and rather scarce Dragonfly catch two Danais 
chrysippus , which it ate on the ground. There was a great number of these butterflies at a patch 
of flowers, and the day was cold, which seemed to affect the flight of the butterflies but not that of 
the Dragonfly; for the former made scarcely any attempt to escape, flying very slowly and lazily. 
Probably, too, the nectar of the flowers had an inebriating effect on the butterflies. Dragonflies 
often make a dart at a butterfly, which the latter appears to avoid easily, though occasionally one 
may see a small Lyccenid snapped up as> it slowly meanders over the ground. It will often be 
missed at the first attempt and promptly drop into the grass, where it clings with closed 
wings to a stalk, whilst the Dragonfly waits on a perch hard by, apparently unable to see the 
butterfly or only accustomed to seize its prey on the wing; when the Lyccenid again takes flight it 
is usually pounced upon and carried off. 
Nearly all the plants fed on by Danais and Euplcea larvae have the seeds attached to a 
silky floss which, carried far and wide by the wind, accounts for their wide distribution, and there¬ 
fore in great measure for that of the butterflies. It is interesting to watch the large woody seed- 
vessels or “follicles” of Strophanthus diver gens opening, as they quickly do under the influence 
of a hot sun after rain ; the long silky hairs dropping in bundles as the seed-pod splits wider and 
wider, or carried far away by the slightest breath of wind. 
Curiously enough I have never found the larvae of 1 Euplcea tnidamus feed on any plant 
but Strophanthus divergens , though the larvae of E. amymone feed on such a variety, all 
belonging, however, to two Nat. Orders, Apocynacece and Asc/epiadece ; another shrub that should 
have been mentioned as one of its occasional foodplants is Thevetia neriifolia , Juss., Nat. Ord. 
Apocynacece y a native of tropical America, but much cultivated here in gardens. It seems quite 
possible that the variety of foodplants of the larvae of this butterfly has some effect in producing 
or accentuating the numerous variations in the butterfly itself, though of course the greatest factor 
in variation must be the abundance of the insect, since the commoner the species the greater the 
liability to vary ; especially when it is also of wide range, and therefore subjected to different 
conditions of soil and climate. 
