120 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
one, it must inevitably have been the centre of 
many superstitions. 
Now that the Giant Armadillo is no longer a 
mystery, and we have photographed and dis¬ 
sected it, the next thing is to capture one alive. 
And although out of such fuel as grubs and 
worms and ants it develops claws like scythes, 
backed with a full horsepower of force, there 
is somewhere the armadillo and somehow the 
method, and this last survivor of the age of 
mammoth anteaters will, sooner or later, be on 
exhibition in our Zoological Park. 
THE DANCE OF THE BUTTERFLIES* 
By John Tee-Van 
Assistant, Tropical Research Station 
E motions are constantly being expressed, 
both by mankind and by animals, in the 
rhythmic motions which we call dancing. 
Usually associated with dancing is a place es¬ 
pecially adapted for it,—a cleared space as a 
dance Hoor, or an open, sandy beach where sand¬ 
pipers and plovers tip and teeter. Many dif¬ 
ferent types of dancing grounds have been 
evolved by animals, ranging from the simple 
clear spaces upon the western plains where 
prairie-chickens dance and drum their chal¬ 
lenges to rivals, to the elaborate arenas of the 
argus pheasants with escape trails and care¬ 
fully tended floors, or the highly decorated play¬ 
grounds of the bower birds, richly furnished 
with feathers and stones and flowers of bright 
colors. 
Far out on the Puruni Trail at Kartabo, I 
found one of the dancing grounds of the Itho- 
miid butterflies,—a small, circular amphitheatre, 
barely two feet in diameter, in the midst of tall 
underbrush and surrounded by high trees. The 
twigs of the bushes surrounding the circle came 
down very low, some of them almost reaching 
the ground, and forming irregular perches upon 
which the butterflies were able to sit as they 
awaited their opportunity of descending to the 
arena. 
These butterflies are common about the Sta¬ 
tion, and their bizarre patterns of black, yellow 
and brown are one of the most familiar sights 
to be seen within the jungle. Some species of 
the group have strange sleeping habits, great 
numbers of them gathering upon the branches 
of a single bush, in response to some butterfly 
law which will not allow them to stay out alone 
at night . 1 Finding them with one strange habit, 
their possession of a dancing ground is not to 
be found unreasonable. 
^Tropical Research Station Contribution, Number 120. 
’Jungle Peace— Beebe —p. 205. 
There was nothing to distinguish this chosen 
portion of the forest which they were using as 
a dancing ground; no apparent physical reason 
as to why it should have been selected. The 
same type of vegetation grew within its borders 
as grew everywhere else within the forest. 
Lianas dropped their graceful lengths from the 
high branches of the j ungle trees in the same 
manner as they did elsewhere; the floor of this 
favored spot was composed of the ever present 
black mold beneath a heavy coat of dead leaves. 
Yet this tiny portion of the forest was differ¬ 
ent. For some strange reason it was able to 
attract these beautifully colored and soft-winged 
butterflies. To this spot from all the glades of 
the forest they flew. The paler colored ones 
flitted in as ghosts might come to a gathering, 
softly and silently,—drifting in as of wisps of 
smoke floating in still air, while the brilliant 
ones came to the group almost afire as the bril¬ 
liant tips of sunlight scintillated on their color¬ 
ful wings. All flew slowly, with the gentle wav¬ 
ing flight so typical of their group, weaving 
their way in and out of dark corners, between 
twigs and around leaves, with their long, nar¬ 
row wings unsoiled by contact with anything 
which might damage them. They rarely as¬ 
cended to the level of one’s eyes, preferring the 
more lowly parts of the jungle to the higher and 
more brilliantly illuminated portions. Often as 
five or six approached they would join together 
in a small, flying circle, about three feet in 
diameter, changing their position all the time, 
weaving in and out among themselves, making 
figure eights and almost impossible geometrical 
figures. After a short while the circle would 
fall apart as its component parts took their 
places about the arena. 
A brilliant yellow, brown and black species 
(Ceratima 7nutilla) was the most conspicuous 
and most common type, followed closely by a 
semi-transparent cousin with the same type of 
coloration ( Napeogenes cyrianassa adulta). 
Fewer in numbers and more difficult to observe 
was a pale purplish-blue species (Leucothyris 
aegle), which almost disappeared against the 
dull colors of the jungle floor. 
On the twigs and branches near the ground 
about the dancing ground the butterflies 
grouped themselves, brought to this spot by some 
factor utterly unknown. Possibly the lure was 
the odor disseminated by a female, not yet 
emerged from the cocoon, an odor far too frail 
to be grasped by the organs of man, but acting 
upon these male butterflies, for so they proved 
to be, as some giant magnet drawing to itself 
all the particles of iron within the field it in- 
