Butterflies Bathing

Abstract

IN answer to the inquiry of Mr. G. A. Freeman (NATURE, vol. xlii. p. 545) as to the food and habits of Papilio macleayanus the butterfly which has been observed to visit water apparently for the purpose of performing its ablutions, I may inform him that the species is commonly found about Sydney, where it feeds in its larval condition on the camphor laurel (Laurus camphora), and the tender shoots and leaves of the orange. It certainly is not aquatic during any part of its life, nor do the plants upon which it feeds grow near water; the insect simply follows the example of its brothers, depositing its eggs singly, and undergoing the transformations on the food-plant as any reasonable butterfly should. Mr. G. Lyell's note as to the bathing habits of P. macleayanus is most interesting, and as far as I am aware the observation is entirely new, although many butterflies of the family Lycænidæ frequent pools on very hot days, settling on the mud at their margins, probably in search of a little moisture. Only recently at Toowoomba, in Queensland, I noticed a number of Holochila absimilis settled about puddles formed on the roads by a passing shower.