1867.] 169 



NOTE ON THE GENUS PANDORA (DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA). 

 BY H. W. BATES, F.Z.S. 



When Professor Westwood first defined this peculiarly-coloured 

 genus of butterflies in Doubleday and Hewitson's " Genera of Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera" in 1850, it consisted only of one species, then extremely 

 rare, P. Prola. Since then, in 1853, Mr. Hewitson figured a second 

 species, P. Procilla, in his " Exotic Butterflies," and a third, as the 

 female of JProcilla, from which an examination of several specimens 

 has convinced me it is quite distinct, not only in colours and markings, 

 but in the form of the antennal club ; all the specimens examined 

 moreover, proving to be males. These three species are found in the 

 valleys of New GTranada. Eecently, in the " Journal of Entomology," 

 vol. ii., p. 213, I have described, from a single example taken by myself 

 on the Amazons, a fourth species, P. Regina ; and I have lately 

 received, from Pebas on the Amazons, a numerous series, not only of 

 P. Begina and P. Prola, but of another new species, allied to Procilla. 

 This last I propose now to describe, besides adding a few remarks on 

 the other members of the group. 



The genus, so far as is at present known, is confined in its geo- 

 graphical range to the sultriest portion of the wooded country of 

 South America, lying near the equator, east of the Andes, and in the 

 neighbouring Andean valleys. The range does not extend to the 

 Atlantic coast, to Brazil or Guiana, and I am not aware that it com- 

 prehends Venezuela. In ascending the Amazons, I first met with 

 species of the genus at a point 1,800 miles up the river, and one species 

 has been recorded as reaching as far in another direction as the Upper 

 Eio Negro. The large size, glossy metallic-green and black colours, 

 and Vermillion under-surfaces, make them most conspicuous objects ; 

 and they are easily captured, as they have the habit of flying into the 

 muddy Indian villages, and settling boldly on the whitewashed walls. 

 Although the difierences between the species are not of that marked 

 character which we see in many other genera of Nymplialidce, I have 

 been forced to the conclusion that they are none the less really distinct, 

 from the constancy of the characters in all the examples I have seen, 

 and from the total absence of intermediate forms in localities where 

 three of the species occur abundantly together, as at Pebas on the 

 Amazons. 



The genus is allied to Batesia (Eelder), and Ageronia (Bdv.), and 

 forms part of the group of Nymflialidce of which Limenitis may be 

 considered the type. To Batesia it is very closely allied, but is well 



