86 
GENERAL NOTES. 
or three summits at Lo-fu-shan rise to near four thousand; both places are haunted by many but¬ 
terflies, especially in spring and autumn. Doubtless many plants which have been exterminated in 
the surrounding country here find a refuge, and with them a number of butterflies whose larvae 
feed thereon. For a very pleasant trip to How-lik during February in H.M.S. Robin I was in¬ 
debted to Lieut.-Commander Robert E. Vaughan, R.N., who has collected several interesting birds 
there, and is making valuable notes and collections of the nesting-habits and eggs of the birds of 
Kwangtung. 
Butterflies of all kinds, particularly during the dry season, may often be seen on the ground 
amongst grass, searching for moisture to slake their thirst. Sometimes a butterfly is caught and 
held for a moment or two by the flowers of some special plants, such as Asclepias , and is seen 
struggling to disengage its proboscis; or in probing Lantana blossoms the insect will sometimes carry 
away a bit of flower clinging to the proboscis; fragments of flower may often be seen dropping from 
the Euploeince as the butterflies leave this shrub. 
The habits of many butterflies change according as the same species inhabits two or more 
entirely different districts: one perhaps well wooded and mostly level plain; another chiefly barren 
hills; yet another marsh or fen. And the different conditions of existence in such varied and per¬ 
haps widely-separated districts would tend to differentiate more and more the butterfly inhabiting 
them all. Thus it is that the description of the habits of a butterfly in one locality may not alto¬ 
gether apply to the same insect in another place. Commander Walker found that in the Chusan 
islands Hestina assimilis frequented bare hill-tops, settling on the rocks in the sun. In this 
district it haunts wooded places at about sea-level, often settling on tree-trunks and branches, 
especially where sap is exuding, which they eagerly drink. 
A great deal of investigation and research has of late years been directed towards the 
solving of the problem of <£ Seasonal Dimorphism ” of certain butterflies or the case where a par¬ 
ticular species produces two different generations, differing not only in colour and marking but even 
in the form or outline of the wings; as for instance Precis almana. In the breeding of some 
butterflies it is possible under certain conditions to produce imagines of the opposite form to that 
which should have occurred under natural conditions. Light and moisture, cold and heat, seem to 
have a great influence on the organisation of a butterfly during its larval and pupal stages (probably 
also in the egg), but the exact causes or conditions which produce dimorphism are not yet accurately 
known. 
