( 546 ) 



111 till.' present moiiogiaijh we liave made :i lum-li more exhaustive stmly of the 

 morphology of the group than is usually the case in works of this sort, but, although 

 many important facts have come to light, the results have not always come up to 

 onr expectations. We have no such marked diflereuecs in the sexual organs or 

 other parts in closely allied species occurring together, as the obvious distinctions 

 to be observed in other groups of Lepidoptera. Hence tlic comparison of the sexual 

 organs of doubtfully distinct species affords little lielp. In Cliaraxes and allied 

 genera these organs are, moreover, subject to some individual variatimi. These 

 points will lie shown fully while describing each sejiaratc species, and are also 

 more extensively discussed in Dr. Jordan's generalization. 



We know comparatively little about the life-history of this interesting group, 

 as the earlier stages of very few of the species have been discovered and recorded. 

 A very extensive field thus opens itself before the (iractical naturalist-collector, 

 and a great number of enigmas of which he alone can supply the solutions remain 

 to be investigated and solved. 



The results we have arrived at in regard to the relationship of the various 

 CharaxeSi etc., are very often at variance with those of other writers on the subject; 

 but we hope to justify our contentions, not only by bringing forward many new facts, 

 but also by more correctly interpreting those already known. 



I have accepted the name Charaxea for the greater jiart of the group of 

 Nymphalinne we are treating of, it being the oldest unoccnpied generic name of 

 which one of onr insects is the type. The type of ('h<tra.i:c» is the Palaearctic 

 species Ja«OM. 



For a long time the term Xi/mphalis was applied to onr insects instead of 

 Gkaraxes, but this was an error ; for the name Ni/mphalis was used and diagnosed 

 by Linnaeus in 1758 as a subgeneric term for a section or phalanx of the genus 

 Faj/iUo — thns " Papilio JS'i/mp/ialifi '" — and this phalanx did not include among its 

 numbers any of our actual group, for the only one known to Linnaeus in 1758 was 

 our present Eulepis p>/rrkm, wliich he placed among his " Papilio Eques^ 



The term Xi/mphaliH, it is true, was clearly intended as a sectional name by 

 Linnaeus, as the headings to the pages in his Stjstema Naturae distinctly prove ; and 

 it must be applied to one of the numerous genera into which his great phalanx 

 ^'Papilio Xymp/ialis" has since been split up. But it is equally certain tliat it 

 cannot be applied to the insects we are discussing. 



In 181(5 Latreille gave yi/mphalis the rank of a genus, including in it the 

 "Papilio Eques Achicus jaaon" of Linnaeus described in 1767. 



In 18n6 Fabricius united jason and pollux, with a number of other Nymphalid 

 butterflies, under the generic title of Pa/jliia, a name already preoccupied by Lamarck 

 in ISUl for a genus of Molluscs. As X>/mphali.s was also preoccupied (by Linnaeus), 

 Ochsenlieimer was correct when in IslO he separated _;«.so« from Linnd's '' 7V//>(Y/o 

 Eques Achicus" under the new generic term Charaxes. 



Shortly after, Hiibner distributed the species congeneric with jason, atlmmas^ 

 (/ec(«.*, and CM/v«o/«e over a number of his genera (the word "coitus" is employed 

 by him instead of "genus"), namely Tigridia (type: nceste, Cram., Pap. Exot 

 t. 121. f. E. f), Eriboea (type: brutus Cram., I.e. t. 241. f. E. f), Doxocopa (type: 

 erminia Cram., Lc. t. 196. f. a. b), Coea (type: varanes Cram., I.e. t. 160. f. d. e) 

 Palla (type: decius Cram., I.e. t. 114. f. a. b), and Knxanfhe (type: enrinome. 

 Cram., I.e. t. 7o. f. a). 



In 182') Billberg published the nondescript name Pobjura as a generic term 



