24 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Mr. Thos. Steel, F.L.S., F:C.S., a member of our Club, has 
been re-elected President of the Linnean Society of N.S. Wales. 
We congratulate Mr. Steel upon the honour thus conferred 
upon him. 
ANON writes :—“ A few notes on a short visit to Byron Bay 
last January may possibly be of some slight service to such of 
your members as are interested in the subject. I can of course 
' speak only of the particular season and time of year in which 
my visit took place, but at that period Byron Bay and its 
immediate neighbourhood were particularily poor in butter- 
flies. About four miles out on the Bungalow Road there are 
some patches of underserub, and when these are reached a con- 
siderable—and in some spots—large numbers of butterflies are 
found. Amongst the most common were Danaus menippe, 
Hiibn., and D. petilia, Stoll.; the latter were apparently just 
coming out, as they were in very good condition. Papilio 
sarpedon, Linn; P. leosthenes, Doubld; P. macleayanus, Leach ; 
P. xgius,Don.; and P. anactus, Macl., were also fairly numerous. 
Among the ‘ Whites,’ Hlodina angulipennis, Lucas, and a larger 
species which flew so high as to evade the sweep of my net, 
were also common. Unfortunately the latter never came close 
enough to allow me to distinguish it. Of the ‘ Blues’ and 
‘Coppers’ Danis taygetus, Feld., Oandalides absimilis, Feld. 
and Lucia lucanus, Fab., were exceedingly numerous. Few 
‘ Skippers’ were about—possibly it was too early in the season. 
Of course the great attraction to a collector from the south is 
Troides priamus richmondia, Gray. The food plant, J under- 
stand, is usually given as Aristolochia, but as this does not grow 
wild nearly so far south as Byron Bay, there must be some 
other food. Specimens that I saw at rest were usually on trees, 
and one that I caught was on what looked like a species of fig, 
Specimens of this beautiful butterfly were hard to obtain as 
they were usually flying very high. I tried a female asa decoy, 
but without success, possibly because the males were not 
numerous. Under favourable circumstances, however, the 
plan would doubtless succeed, as I saw P. macleayanus drop 
like a stone down to the small ‘ White’ fluttering some feet 
below. Anyone collecting in such a place should, in my opinion, 
certainly carry an extra joint or joints for his net stick to in- 
crease his reach if necessary, for it is irritating to have to stand 
helpless as I had to do on one occasion with a fine male T'roides 
a few feet above my head, but as safe from capture as if he 
had been 50 yards away. On.the railway, between Byron Bay 
and Murwillumbah, there is a place named Buringbah, which, 
as far as can be judged from the train, should be most excellent 
collecting ground, as there is much more scrub than near Byron 
Bay.” : 
