Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/124

 many bordered or spangled with metallic lines and spots of a silvery or golden lustre. Some have wings transparent as glass; one of these clear wings is especially beautiful, namely, the Hetaira Esmeralda; it has one spot only of opaque colouring on its wings, which is of a violet and rose hue; this is the only part visible when the insect is flying low over dead leaves in the gloomy shades where alone it is found, and it then looks like a wandering petal of a flower.

Moths also are of great variety at Pará; but most of them are diurnal in their time of flight and keep company with the butterflies. I never succeeded in finding many moths at night. In situations such as gardens and wood sides, where so many are to be seen in England, scarcely a single individual is to be found. I attribute this scarcity of nocturnal moths to the multitude of night-flying insectivorous animals, chiefly bats and goat-suckers, which perpetually haunt the places where they would be found. On the open commons a moth is seen flying about in broad daylight which is scarcely distinguishable from the common English Plusia Gamma. Several times I found the Erebus strix expanded over the trunks of trees, to the bark of which it is assimilated in colour. This is one of the largest moths known, some specimens measuring nearly a foot in expanse. Along the narrow paths in the forests, an immense number of clear-winged moths are found in the day-time; mostly coloured like wasps, bees, ichneumon flies, and other Hymenopterous insects. Some species of the same family have opaque wings, and