EQUITID/E 235 



Eange. — The species formerly included in the genus Papilio 

 and its immediate allies are sparingly represented all over the 

 world, but attain their maximum of size, beauty, and variety in 

 the Indo- and Austro-Malayan Regions. The genera which 

 most nearly resemble the Pieridce, on the other hnnd, are 

 mountain insects, and, with the exception of Pariiassius^ which 

 extends to the Rocky Mountains, are almost entirely confined 

 to Europe and Northern and Western Asia. 



Habits. — Most of the larger and more typical species of this 

 family feed on trees, and others on UnibeUiferce. They frequent 

 woods and gardens, and have a lofty, sailing flight, but as they 

 frequently rest on tall flowers or flowering shrubs, they are less 

 difficult to capture than might be supposed. As already men- 

 tioned, the white species which resemble Pieridce frequent 

 mountain slopes, and their larvce feed on saxifrages and other 

 low plants. 



I believe that Dr. Scudder is right in regarding the Camber- 

 well Beauty, Vanessa antiopa of our first volume (p. 92), as the 

 true type of the genus Papilio^ Linn., for Schrank assigned that 

 name to the Nyniphalidce before Latreille restricted it to the 

 Linnean Eqiiites. But the genus need not carry the Family 

 name with it, and the Nymphalidce may retain that title. The 

 present Family may be called Equitidcc^ which course I have 

 decided to adopt in the present volume, pending the final sub- 

 division of the great genus Papilio, Latreille (nee Schrank), into 

 natural genera. 



The Equitidce. form several very distinct groups, which mny 

 be treated as Sub-families. Schatz defines three, but they are 

 more readily separable by their general appearance than by the 

 characters which he assigns to them. 



