Genus Hypolimnas 
rows on either side of the shorter spines. It feeds on various 
species of malvaceous plants and also on the common portulaca. 
Chrysalis .—The chrysalis is thick, 
with the head obtusely pointed; the 
abdominal segments adorned with a 
double row of tubercles. The thorax 
is convex. 
This genus, which includes a large 
number of species, reaches its fullest 
development in the tropics of the Old 
World, and includes some of the most 
beautiful, as well as the most singular, 
forms, which mimic the protected spe¬ 
cies of the Euplceinae, or milkweed but¬ 
terflies, of the Indo-Malayan and Ethi¬ 
opian regions. In some way one of the 
most widely spread of these species, 
which is found throughout the tropics 
of Asia and Africa, has obtained lodg¬ 
ment upon the soil of the New World, 
and is occasionally found in Florida, 
where it is by no means common. It 
may be that it was introduced from Africa in the time of the 
slave-trade, having been accidentally brought over by ship. That 
this is not impossible is shown by the fact that the writer has, 
on several occasions, obtained in the city of Pittsburgh specimens 
of rare and beautiful tropical insects which emerged from chrysa¬ 
lids that were found attached to bunches of bananas brought 
from Honduras. 
(i) Hypolimnas misippus, Linnaeus, Plate XXI, Fig. 9, $ ; 
Fig. 10, $ (The Mimic). 
Butterfly, $ .—On the upper side the wings are velvety-black, 
with two conspicuous white spots on the fore wing, and a larger 
one on the middle of the hind wing, the margins of these spots 
reflecting iridescent purple. On the under side the wings are 
white, intricately marked with black lines, and black and red- 
dish-ochraceous spots and shades. 
$.—The female mimics two or three forms of an Oriental 
milkweed butterfly, the pattern of the upper side of the wings 
conforming to that of the variety of the protected species which 
181 
Fig. 105.—Neuration of the 
genus Hypolimnas. 
