58 NYMPHALID^. DANAIN^. EUPLCEA. 



This genus was divided by Hiibner into three or four groups, each with a well-marked 

 general outline ; and more recently Butler has extended this division into seven groups ; more 

 recently still Moore has discriminated two other groups, which will be noted further on, and is 

 about to monograph the whole genus ; but the characters of the new groups he has given seem 

 to agree with those already discriminated by Butler, whose definitions are used in this book, 



Key to the Groups of EUTLSIA. 



A, With a large patch of whitish or pale yellow scales on the anterior portion of the hindwing in the male. 



a. Forewing in the male, with the inner margin strongly arched, and having an elongated silky or 

 blue spot depressed on the interno-median area ; of medium size. 



I. Salpinx* (Hiibner, as restricted by Butler). 



h. With no silky or blue depressed spot on uiterno-median.area ; of very large size. 



II. Macroplcea (Butler). 



c. With no silky or blue depressed spot on interno-median area ; of snail size, 



III. Calliplcea (Butler). 



B, With a small yellow patch within the cell of hindwing at origin of first subcostal nervule ; no brand on 



forewing in the male. 



IV. Trepsichrois (Hiibner). 



C, With no yellowish patch on hindwing in the male. 



a. With no trace of a brand on the interno-median area of forewing of male. 



V. Crastia (Hiibner). 



b. With a single more or less strongly defined brand on interno-median area of forewing of male. 



VI. Euplcea (Fabricius, as restricted by Butler). 



c. With two well-defined brands on interno-median area of forewing in male. 



VII. SxicTOPLCEAt (Butler). 



There is something very remarliable about these groups ; they are based almost entirely on 

 the sexual marks of the male insect, but in many cases these distinctions are accompanied by 

 differences of outline that cannot be mistaken ; the most curious point is that frequently the 

 same style of colouration runs through two or more of the groups ; thus Salpinx sinhala and 

 Stidoploca coreo'ides so closely resemble each other and E. core in colour and markings that until 

 quite recently the distinctions were unrecognised. In like manner Stidoplxa grotci closely resem- 

 bles E. Umborgii in colour and markings ; some specimens of the female of Macroplcea castelnaui 

 are a very good likeness on a large scale of E. godartii. Salpinx margarita bears a similar 

 resemblance to Crastia cupreipe^mis which occurs with it in the Mergui Archipelago and Upper 

 Tenasserim, and Crastia camarahemaii from Siam. Crastia simulatrix closely resembles 

 Eiiplcca camo7-ta, &c., &c. The difficulty of distinguishing the species on the wing is a great 

 hindrance to observation of the insects in life. The claim of the groups to generic rank 

 appears still to be doubtful, and there is much to be learned in connection with them. 



First Group. — Salpinx (Hiibner, as restricted by Butler) : " For the most part large 

 nsects, the males of which invariably have a strongly arched inner margin to the yi7/£w/«^, 

 which is frequently ornamented with an elongated depressed silky or blue spot ; the hindiving 

 invariably with a large patch of whitish or pale yellow, cut by the subcostal nervure." — {^Butler, 

 Journ. Linn. Soc, Zoology, vol. xiv, p. 295, 1878). The wings are generally ample, and 

 more or less rounded externally. The habitat of this group is extreme north-east India and 

 Burma, extending down the Malay peninsula. Of the Indian species only one is found in the 

 Nicobar islands, and one species is found in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, in Sikkim, 

 and again in southern India and Ceylon ; the whole of the remainder are found only to the 

 north and east of the Bay of Bengal. One species of this group, E. stiperba, is taken by Moore 

 in the Lepidoptera of Ceylon, p. 10 (1880), as the type of a new genus which, under the name 

 of Isamia, he characterises as follows : — " Wings large, broad ; forewingin male elongated, 

 somewhat quadrate ; apex slightly acuminate ; exterior margin oblique, waved ; posterior margin 

 convex, with a large sericeous streak between the first median nervule and submedian nervure ; 

 hindwing triangular, costa long, convex ; exterior margin convex, waved ; a mgderate-sized 

 pale upper discoidal patch," 



* Inclu<ies Isamia, Moore. 

 t Includes Narmada^ Moore. 



