Xvi INTRODUCTION. 
inhabiting our region extends northward to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and 
southward to the Argentine Republic. It is replaced by allied forms in the West- 
Indian Islands. 
ERYCINIDE. 
The headquarters of the Erycinide are in Tropical America, where an immense 
number of species are found, the Oriental region having comparatively few repre- 
sentatives. We recognize forty-eight genera in Central America, all but two of 
which (Apodemia and Polystigma) occur also in South America, where many others not 
entering our region are to be met with, the most conspicuous of these being Helicopis, 
Stalachtis, Syrmatia, Barbicornis, Amarynthis, and Zelotea. Five extend to the United 
States, two of which (Apodemia and Polystigma) are not found south of Mexico, the 
other three (Lurygona, Charis, and Emesis) being common to North, Central, and 
South America; eight reach Northern Mexico only, and fifteen stop in Nicaragua, 
Costa Rica, or Panama. So far as we know, the Erycinide are almost wanting in 
the West-Indian Islands (exclusive of Trinidad and Tobago), two or three species 
only having been recorded and these not confirmed. Notwithstanding their small size, 
these are certainly the most interesting of all the Tropical-American butterflies, and 
from their diversity of form and colour they have always attracted the attention of 
travellers, among others that of H. W. Bates, who collected and made observations on 
the very numerous species inhabiting the Amazons Valley. The most remarkable genera 
known from Central America are: Erycina, Diorhina, and Zeonia, which have the general 
appearance of a small-tailed Papilio; Anteros, with metallic spots on the underside 
of the wings; Caria, with metallic lines and patches above ; lthomeis, a mimetic form 
resembling certain Ithomiina; Mesenopsis, Lepricornis, and Aricoris, the species of 
which are very like various day-flying moths inhabiting the same districts; Hades, an 
insect very similar in colour, both above and beneath, to the Nymphalid genus 
Morpheis, both monotypic forms, the first-mentioned, however, having a much more 
extended distribution; and Theope, most of the species of which bear a great 
resemblance to various T’hecl@ occurring in the same localities. 
To show the poverty of the Erycinide north of our boundary, it may be noted that 
eleven species only are enumerated by Skinner in his recent Catalogue (Syst. Cat. N. 
Am. Rhopalocera, 1898), as against our 240. Most of these insects are confined to the 
“ tierra caliente,” or low country, and are of very retiring habits, constantly resting on 
the undersides of leaves, some of them being only seen during the very short period 
