flower, with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be scarcely
visible, I was reminded of the sphinx moths: their movements and habits
are indeed in many respects very similar.
Following a pathway, I entered a noble forest, and from a height of
five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views was presented,
which are so common on every side of Rio. At this elevation the
landscape attains its most brilliant tint; and every form, every shade,
so completely surpasses in magnificence all that the European has ever
beheld in his own country, that he knows not how to express his
feelings. The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest
scenery of the Opera-house or the great theatres. I never returned
from these excursions empty-handed. This day I found a specimen of a
curious fungus, called Hymenophallus. Most people know the English
Phallus, which in autumn taints the air with its odious smell: this,
however, as the entomologist is aware, is, to some of our beetles a
delightful fragrance. So was it here; for a Strongylus, attracted by
the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in my hand. We here
see in two distant countries a similar relation between plants and
insects of the same families, though the species of both are different.
When man is the agent in introducing into a country a new species, this
relation is often broken: as one instance of this I may mention, that
the leaves of the cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford food
to such a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near Rio
are untouched.
During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of insects. A few
general observations on the comparative importance of the different
orders may be interesting to the English entomologist. The large and
brilliantly coloured Lepidoptera bespeak the zone they inhabit, far
more plainly than any other race of animals. I allude only to the
butterflies; for the moths, contrary to what might have been expected
from the rankness of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer
numbers than in our own temperate regions. I was much surprised at the
habits of Papilio feronia. This butterfly is not uncommon, and
generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high flier, yet it
very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On these occasions its
head is invariably placed downwards; and its wings are expanded in a
horizontal plane, instead of being folded vertically, as is commonly
the case. This is the only butterfly which I have ever seen, that uses
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