532 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. so 



of the subspecies niegalippe from Key West, Fla., which I owe to the 

 courtesy of Liicien Harris, Jr., of Atlanta, Ga. : a number of specimens 

 from eastern Virginia in the collection of tlie University of Richmond 

 captured by Dr. Carroll M. Williams; and about 50 from Tahiti, 

 which were sent me by J. Morgan Clements. Dr. Hugo Kahl, of the 

 Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh, Pa., and Ralph Chermock were so 

 good as to look up for me the specimen figured by Dr. W. J. Holland 

 in "The Butterfly Book"' as pJexvppus which I had long recognized as 

 representing the South and Central American form megalippe. 



My interest in the milkweed butterfly was first aroused a few years 

 ago by the capture of two very worn examples of Danaus plexippus 

 megaUppe in eastern Virginia. These, at the time, were regarded 

 merely as aberrations of the coumion D. p. plex'ippus. Later Mr. 

 Harris sent me a fine specimen from Key West, Fla., and Mr. Viosca 

 sent me four others that had been taken with numerous very worn 

 migrants of B. p. plexlppus near New Orleans, La. I then found that 

 megalippe occurs sparingly in the coastal marshes of eastern Virginia 

 in company with the much more numerous plexlppus. 



Whether this southern form is endemic on our southeastern coast 

 or whether it is simply a casual. sAvept up, so to speak, in the wave 

 of north-bound pUxippus in spring, remains to be determined. 



Unfortunately the material available has been far too limited to 

 permit the drawing of any but tentative conclusions regarding the 

 number and distribution of tlie forms of Da/mm p]< ■' 'ppm occurring 

 in northern South America and in the West Indies. Nu specimens are 

 at hand from Venezuela, except from Aroa in the west, or from most 

 of the West Indian islands. The few West Indian specimens cer- 

 tainly do not give, in some cases, a true picture of the status of the 

 species in those islands that are represented. For instance, only the 

 northern D. p. plexipp^ts is represented from Cuba and from Trinidad 

 where the prevailing local form would pre.-umably be D. p. megalipjye 

 or some variant of it. 



It is hoped that this paper will serve to call attention to the interest 

 attaching to the careful working out, on the basis of adequate material, 

 of the tropical forms of this polymorphic species. 



The National Museum has recently received from C. O. Neumann, 

 of San Antonio, Tex., a fine specimen of Danai/.s deothera, a species not 

 heretofore recorded from, the United States, and there is another speci- 

 men of the same species, also from Texas, in the Barnes collection. 

 Tliis collection includes, in addition, a specimen of Danau-'i jam-aicensis 

 from Florida. J. F. G. Clarke has suggested that notices of these 

 specimens be included in the present paper. 



With these additions the number of forms in the genus Danaus 

 recorded from the United States reaches ;i total of seven— Pdwim/.'? 



