vi RHOPALOCERA DANAIDES 345 



(submedian) nervure, with a short fork at the base. Cell of hind 

 i/'iug dosed. Front foot of the female ending in a corrugate 

 knob. Caterpillars smooth, provided with a feio long fie shy pro- 

 cesses. The claws are in a variable state, being sometimes simple, 

 as in Papilionidae, sometimes with an empodium, apparently of 

 an imperfect kind. The Danaides are usually large Insects with 

 an imperfect style of ornament and colour ; they have a great 

 deal of black or very dark scaling, and in some Euploea this 

 is agreeably relieved by a violet or purple suffusion, and these 

 are really fine Insects. Usually there are large pale spaces, of 

 some neutral indefinite tint, on which black blotches are dis- 

 tributed in a striking but inartistic manner. In many of the 

 species the markings are almost spot for spot the same on the 

 upper and under sides. About seven genera and 250 species are 

 recognised. Danaides occur in all the warmer parts of the 

 world, but are most numerous in the Eastern tropics. In Europe 

 the family is represented only by an Asiatic and African species, 

 Limnas chrysippus, that has extended its range to Greece. 

 Besides this another species, Anosia erippus, Or. (unfortunately 

 also called Anosia menippe, Hb., and Danais archippus or even I). 

 plexippus) has in the last two or three decades extended its 

 range to various islands and distant localities, concomitantly, it 

 is believed, with an extension of the distribution of its food-plant, 

 Asdepias. This Insect has several times been taken in this 

 country, and may probably be a natural immigrant. It is a 

 common butterfly in North America, where it is called the 

 Monarch. 1 



Some, at least, of the Danaides are unpleasant to birds in 

 odour or in taste, or both. Among them there occur, according 

 to Moore 2 and others, numerous cases of resemblance between 

 forms that are thus protected. It is possible that the odour 

 and taste are of some value to the Insects ; 3 as, however, butter- 

 flies of any kind appear to be but rarely attacked in the imago- 

 state by birds, and as their chief enemies are parasitic Insects 

 that attack the larval instar, it is impossible to consider this 

 protection of such prime importance to the species as many 

 theorists assume it to be. 



1 This is the subject of Scudder's Life of a Butterfly, 1893. 



2 P. Zoul. Soc. London, 1883, p. 205. 



3 Finn, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Ixvi. 1896, p. 528 ; Ixvii. 1897, p. 213. 



