HUGE BUTTERFLY FOUND IN BRAZIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 97, 14 October 1911, Page 12

HUGE BUTTERFLY FOUND IN BRAZIL.

SPECIMEN AS BIG AS SPARROWHAWK. W. M. Mann and Frederick Baker, members of the Stanford Brazilian exploring expedition, who remained behind, have sent news to the camps from Maderna, on the Amazon river, of the discovery of a hitherto unknown species of the morpho, a huge butterfly. The new species is as large as a sparrow hawk, and caused considerable fright to the members by flying towards them in an attitude of attack. • When within a few feet of its- enemy it strikes' and soars to a height of twenty or thirty feet, returning to repeat the attack." Several large specimens of the insect have been preserved, and will be further investigated upon the party's return to the camps. The remaining members will travel up the Amazon for a distance of 500 miles, and will gather specimens of the animals and plants all along the route. The river, after a hundred mite or so from the mouth, is so thickly infested with crocodiles and large gar that bathing in the river is absolutely impossible with any degree of safety. The crocodiles are of the larger species of the floating variety, and are dangerous. Fresh-water fish, such as carp and cat-fish, which in this country do not excel in size, on the Amazon attain the weight of from 300 to 500 pounds under the tropica] sun. The struggle for existence of vegetation is indescribable, and the banks along the river are one solid mass of tangled vines, palms, mosses and orchids. Tt is impossible to set foot on the ground for a distance of a mile from the banks. Monkeys, snakes and parrots are the only creatures which can exist in the dense clusters.