412 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



misippus, without the black and white tips to the {brewings, 

 imitate Danais dorippus, a species, if distinct at all, very closely 

 allied to D. chrysippus. But the occurrence of this variety of 

 H. misippus in fairly plentiful quantities in the island of Bombay, 

 where Danais dorippus seems not to be found at all, supports the 

 view that D. dorippus is not a distinct species, but merely an acci- 

 dental variety of D. chrysippus. 



But the male of Hypolimnas misippus, with its dark wings, eyed 

 with purple on the upper side and brown and white beneath, is 

 so unlike the female that it might well be mistaken for a member 

 of a different species. Unlike it is also in its habit. Being of a quick 

 restless flight and quarrelsome disposition, it does not associate 

 either with the swarms of Danais chrysippus or with its own 

 females, but inhabits generally some particular bush or shrub, 

 which it seems to consider its own property, for it resents the 

 intrusion of any trespasser with all the fury of a game-preserving 

 Squire, making short quick dashes at any creature approaching 

 its domain, even if it be but an inoffensive biped armed with a 

 green gauze net. 



Another larger species of Hypolimnas, H. bolina, has also, 

 though not in so marked a degree, this characteristic of a difference 

 in coloration between the male and female, the latter imitating 

 another species of the Danaince, Euploea core. The male of 

 Hypolimnas bolina is distinctly and conspicuously eyed with spots 

 of a brighter purple than H. misippus; but in the female these spots 

 are reduced to a faint streak, which brings the general appearance 

 of the insect to a closer resemblance to the brownish-purple hue 

 of Euplcea core than of its own mate. 



Euploea core, besides the unpleasant taste common to its family, 

 enjoys a further protection in the possession of a pair of yellow 

 brush-like plumes which the male can at pleasure protrude from the 

 end of its abdomen. This is not a feature peculiar to Euploea core, 

 certain species of the genus Danais also possessing it, but it is not 

 common to the whole family of the Danaince. These plumes seem 

 to be charged with a concentration of the unpleasant smell of the 

 family, and the use of them may be to ensure the pursuer getting 

 a good mouthful or noseful of it before he seizes the fugitive, and 



