INTRODUCTORY PAPERS ON LEPIDOPTERA. 201 



with rounded wings, spotted with semitransparent white on the 

 fore wings, and with the disk of the hind wings filled up 

 with the same colour. The hind margins are spotted with 

 white beneath. These insects do not exceed two inches in 

 expanse, and much resemble some species of Neptis {Nym- 

 phalincB) in appearance. 



The South and Central American species of Danain<B 

 are exceedingly numerous, and cannot easily be confounded 

 with any other butterflies, except certain species of //(?/^cow^M« 

 and Dismorphia ; from the latter they may be at once 

 distinguished by their imperfect front legs, and from the 

 former by the larger discoidal cell of the hind wings. They 

 are generally insects with long slender bodies, and long 

 narrow rounded wings, frequently more or less transparent. 

 The greater part of the smaller species fall into the genus 

 Ilhomia ; and a large number are more or less transparent, 

 a character which, though not confined to them or to South 

 American butterflies, is rare in other groups and in other 

 countries. Among the more interesting of the remaining 

 genera are Lycorea, black and fulvous butterflies, three or 

 four inches across, with yellow spots on the fore wings, 

 and a row of marginal white dots on the hind wings ; 

 Thyridia, nearly as large, but with narrower wings, trans- 

 parent, edged and streaked with black; and "mimicked" 

 by different moths of the families Castniid(B and Pericopidce ; 

 Mechanitis and il/e/i;?tcrt, narrower and smaller insects than 

 Lycorea, but similarly marked with black and fulvous, and 

 generally also with yellow; and Tithorea, generally resem- 

 bling Lycorea in pattern, and of nearly equal size (one 

 species, T. Bonplandii, is rich deep black, with milky white 

 spots on the fore wings and round all the hind margins, and 

 a broad yellow band near the base of the hind wings). 



The New World Danaince are a somewhat difficult study, 

 as the species are very numerous and closely allied. 

 They are also very uniform in colour, the prevailing tints 

 being black, transparent, fulvous, yellow, and white. A 

 great nun)ber of ///^ojw/te are figured in Hewitson's ' Exotic 

 Butterflies; and there is a very valuable paper by Bates 

 on the Heliconidcs of the Amazon Valley (Trans. Linn. Soc, 

 vol. xxiii., published in 1862). 



Our next article will be devoted to the Satyrina. 



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