( o45 ) 



A MONOGEAPH OF CHABAXES AND THE ALLIED 

 PKIONOPTEROUS GENERA. 



By the HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD and DR. K. JORDAN. 



(Plates V. to XIVa.) 



EVEI! since I began seriously to collect Lepidopteva, the section of the great 

 family Numphalidae which is treated of in this article has been a favourite 

 of mine. About six years ago I began a monograph of these insects, but had to 

 abandon my project from lack of material and want of time. 



In recommencing a monograph of these interesting butterflies in conjunction 

 with Dr. Karl Jordan, I feel more confident that I shall be able to place before 

 entomologists a correct nhumcoi the work done, as my series from the Indo-Malaj'an, 

 Papuan, and Australian regions has been rendered very complete by the labours of 

 W. Doherty, the late Alfred Everett, A. S. Meek, and others: in fact the collection 

 of Cliaraxcs and Knlepis from the East upon which the following work is based is 

 the most complete in the world. The African species are also very well represented 

 in my Musenm. The few forms not contained in my own collection have been 

 examined and studied, either by Dr. Jordan or myself, in the collections of others. 



I have specially to thank Dr. Standfnger, Messrs. G. Severin, H. Grose Smith, 

 Weymer, Fruhstori'er, Suftert, Rober, Adams, Ci'owley, and Dr. Pagenstecher, as 

 well as the officials of the British, Oxford, Berlin, and Dresden Museums, for their 

 generons help. In most cases we were able to examine so large a number of indi- 

 viduals of ('a<'h species and race that we could gather a definite and, I may say, 

 correct opinion as to their distinctness or otherwise. There remain, however, two 

 groups of forms about which considerable uncertainty exists. I am t^nite willing to 

 admit that our classification of these two groups is open to discnssion, but I think, 

 with the material available at present for examination, our <'oncbisions are much 

 more reliable than any presented hitherto. 



In both these groups the individuals give us no clue as to whether we are 

 dealing with one polymorphic and very variable species or with a number of distinct 

 though closely allied species. I think, however, that I shall show in the course of 

 this monograph that the balance of evidence leans most decidedly to the side of 

 ])olymorphism. 



The two groups in ([uestion are Cliaraxen ctkeocles and its close allies, and 

 Cfiitraxcs pobfxnm with its hosts of varieties and nearly allied forms. To finally 

 clear nji the ([uestion our field-naturalists in India and Africa must breed these 

 insects not only from the egg, but from the eggs of a single /<'??irt/(', so as to prove 

 the range of specific, snbspecific, and individual variation. It is to be hoped that 

 collectors in North India and Africa will strive to carry on the fine work accom- 

 jdished in Southern India, in the domain of biology, by Messrs. Davidson, Aitkcn, 

 Hell, and others, wlio, owing to these researches, rank to-day among the foremost of 

 Indian entomologists. 8nch researches alone can teach us the true solution of the 

 problems presenti^d by many of the North Indian and African forms, and they are 

 not only of value to the student of zoology in the wider sense, but are of immense 

 importance to the systematist pure and simple. 



