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THE. GENUS HETEROXYMPHA IN NEW SOUTH 



WALES. 



By G. a. Waterhousb. 



The Genus Heteronympha is typically Australian, being found 

 chiefly along the eastern coast. All the known species have been 

 taken in New South Wales with the exception of the Western 

 Australian form of the commonest species of the genus. Hetero- 

 nympha belongs to that portion of the Australian fauna which 

 characterises the subregion to which Prof. Baldwin Spencer has 

 applied the term " Bassian."* These butterflies all frequent dull 

 damp spots, and are fond of settling on the ground among the 

 dead leaves, so as to make it very diflicult to distinguish them, 

 as on the under side their wings resemble a withered leaf, so much 

 so that I have often stood a few feet away from the spot where 

 I had seen one of these butterflies settle without detecting it. 

 They are most plentiful and most easily caught on drizzling rainy 

 days. In this genus the males always appear on the wing before 

 the females. As far as I am aware the life-histories of only two 

 have been worked out; these will be found in Victorian Butter- 

 Jiies, Part I. The larvae are probably all grass-feeders, sluggish 

 in the day time, feeding only at night. This will account for the 

 extreme difficulty in finding larvae or pupte. I will now deal with 

 the different species more in detail. 



Heteronympha merope, Fabr. — This butterfly is at certain 

 times one of the commonest near Sydney, and is chiefly found in 

 gullies. The males appear on the wing in November, very few 

 females being seen then, while later on in January the females 

 predominate, only damaged males being on the wing. The sexes 

 of this insect differ considerably from each other, the female being 



* Report of the Horn Expedition, Part i. 1896, p. 197. 



