OCR Text |
Show 1890.] LEPIDOPTERA FROM BRAZIL. 553 penetrated so far up the Araguaya River as Mr. Reynolds, the list may he useful as showing the distribution of Amazonian Butterflies. I have to return my grateful thanks to Mr. F. D. Godman and Mr. Osbert Salvin for help in determining many difficult species. M y principal work on the collection has been done at the Natural History Museum ; and I cannot sufficiently thank Mr. A. G. Butler for his kindness in helping me with m y determinations, which, with the imprimatur of three such experienced Lepidopterists, will, I trust, be found to be in the main correct. Mr. C. O. Waterhouse has also assisted me greatly with his advice in m y descriptions of the new species. Mr. Reynolds has sent me the following account of his journey :- " The Butterflies in question form part of a small collection made by me while in the interior of Brazil; and as I was not on a Natural History expedition, but on one that had for its object the exploration of the Araguaya and other rivers, I had to do my collecting under considerable difficulty. " When barely 300 miles from Para our steam-launch was wrecked in the first rapid on the Lower Tocantins, and although after great delay and trouble we succeeded in getting her off the rocks and patched her up, we found it i npossible, in the low state of the river, to make our expedition in her; so m y companion (Mr. Middleton) and I decided to continue our journey in a canoe. W e therefore sent back the launch with all hands, instructing the engineer to stop at the first settlement to buy a boat and hire a black crew, and send them up to where we were encamped above the rapids. I may mention here that after the wreck of the launch we got ashore on a small rocky island in the middle of the rapids, and as we could not get off for several days I had time to collect what little there was to catch in the way of Butterflies, among them being specimens of Mylothris iphigenia and Heliconius antiochus. " There was little room in our boat for more than a few necessaries ; but I managed to stow away a net, some camphor, and a book of paper for wrapping up the Butterflies, and also a couple of old biscuit-tins for storing them in. W e expected to reach a settlement on the Araguaya called Leopoldina in about three and a half months, intending from there to go overland to the city of Goyaz, then to return by the River Vermelho, and cross the country between the Araguaya and Upper Tocantins Rivers, and on reaching the latter to return by it to Para. W e had therefore a very long journey before us; so, to avoid delaying the canoe, I used to take the opportunity of our getting into the rapids or a very strong current to land and go into the forests, making m y way through them as the boat was working up the stream, and in this way my nrincipal collecting was done. Any one who has been in a tropical Brazilian forest will understand the difficulties I had to contend with. Occasionally I would come across a bit of comparatively clear ground where I could collect; but generally my way lay through the densest of vegetation, and it took me all m y time with my cutlass to make any progress at all. If I thought that the |