io6 SOUTH-AFRICAN LUTTERFLIES. 



Pupa. — Blunt, thick, rounded; tail considerably incurved. 

 Attached by the tail and a girth round the body. 



[These characters of Larva and Pupa are taken from the figures of 

 the early states of D. XenopJio7i (Fab.), and D. Melampus (Cram.), — 

 both natives of Java — given in Horsfield and Moore's Catalogue of 

 the Zejndopterous Insects in the E. I. Co.'s Museum, vol. i., pi. i, 

 ff. 2, 2a, and 3, 3a. The larva of the former species is stated to feed 

 on Selimiedclia rcLcemosa, and that of the Indian D. Isocrates (Fab.), on 

 the interior of the fruit of the common Pomegranate.] 



This genus is equivalent to Sithon, Hiibn. (Verz. bekannt. Schmett., 

 p. yy)', but its characters were first defined by Hewitson (ojy. cit.), in 

 1862, and the latter author's name oi Deudorix is thus to be preferred. 

 It is well characterised by the robust body, very slender palpi, long 

 slender antenuEe with long but well-developed clavation, hairy eyes, 

 and very prominent lobate appendage at the anal angle of the hind- 

 wings. The forehead — and sometimes also the tip of the abdomen — 

 is commonly adorned with a red or orange patch. The under side is 

 not nearly so elaborately ornamented as in Aphnmiis, and is usually of 

 some tint of grey or greyish-brown, with slightly-darker, usually 

 whitish-edged, more or less macular discal bands. The Austro- 

 Malayan D. Bcspmna, Hewits., and allies have, however, a more ornate 

 under side of creamy-yellowish, strikingly barred with black ; and the 

 North-Indian J9. Amyiitor, Herbst., has an almost uniform under side 

 of dull-green. In the majority of spines the male is blue on the 

 upper side, but in eight or nine cases intense red or orange-red, and in 

 a few of a bronzy or of an ochrey-yellow tint. The female is almost 

 always of a dull-brownish or greyish on the upper surface, but some- 

 times exhibits a considerable tinge of the brighter hue of the male, 

 and occasionally (as in D. Antalus (HopfF.), and D. Fhcrctima, Hewits.), 

 a different tint from that of her partner. 



About forty-two species are on record. The genus ranges from 

 Western Africa to Australia, but finds its principal development in 

 India and the Indo-Malayan Islands, which together possess twenty- 

 two species. The Austro-Malayan Islands have yielded eight, and 

 Australia itself two ; while seven are known from Africa. Four of 

 the last-named inhabit Southern Africa, but only one — I). Diodes, 

 Hewits., — seems to be confined to that subregion ; the others being 

 found also in the South-Tropical belt, and D. Antcdus (Hopff.), appa- 

 rently extending all over the Ethiopian Region. The last-men- 

 tioned species is the only form that I have seen in life ; both sexes 

 are very active in their frequent short flights, and the male is 

 particularly rapid on the wing. In Antalus the $ has the upper side 

 of a submetallic bronzy-brown suffused from base with violaceous, 

 while the ^ is of a paler and more bluish colour ; in the other three 

 species, the upper side of the $ is more or less occupied with bright- 

 red (not metallic), and that of the $ of two of them pale-fuscous with 

 dull-whitish on the discal areas. 



