Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
skinned negress; and that instead of the children being mulattoes of brown or dusky tints,
mingling the characteristics of each parent in varying degrees, all the boys should be as fair-
skinned and blue-eyed as their father, while the girls should altogether resemble their moth-
ers. This would be thought strange enough, but the case of these butterflies is yet more ex-
traordinary, for each mother is capable not only of producing male offspring like the father,
and female like herself, but also other females like her fellow wife, and altogether differing
from herself!
Papilio coön
The other species to which I have to direct attention is the Kallima paralekta, a butterfly
of the same family group as our Purple Emperor, and of about the same size or larger. Its up-
per surface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash colour, and across the fore wings
there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on the wing it is very conspicuous. This
species was not uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and I often endeavoured to capture it
without success, for after flying a short distance it would enter a bush among dry or dead
leaves, and however carefully I crept up to the spot I could never discover it till it would
suddenly start out again and then disappear in a similar place. At length I was fortunate
enough to see the exact spot where the butterfly settled, and though I lost sight of it for some
