COLOUR EFFECTS
A favourite food of the great green, gold and black butterfly
(ORNITHOPTERA CASSANDRA) is the nectar of the hard, dull-red flowers of
the umbrella-tree, and this fact assisted in an observation which seems
to prove that plants play tricks on insects. Among the introduced plants
of the island is one of the acalyphas. Butterflies which have feasted
among the umbrella-trees on the beach and on the edge of the jungle flit
about the garden and almost invariably visit the red but nectarless
acalypha. One began at the end of the row, examined the topmost leaves,
flitted to the next, and so on, lured by the colour and disappointed by
the absence of nectar, twenty-five times, in succession, until it
blundered on the red hibiscus bushes and began to feed.
The gorgeous blue swallow-tail (PAPILIO ULYSSES) seems to have a fancy
for yellow, for it pays frequent visits to the golden trumpets of the
tecoma and the alamanda. The living gold of the flowers and the imperial
blue of the insect form a sumptuous if everyday scene.
MUSICAL FROGS
A marked feature of the wet season is the varied chant of happy frogs.
During the day silence is the rule.
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