132 ON THE VARIETIES OF ACTIAS MAENAS. 



NOTE YII. 

 ON THE VARIETIES OF ACTIAS MAENAS, Doubld. 



BY 



R. VAN EECKE. 



(With four plates and one text-figure). 



A very beautiful and by no means common species of 

 Saturnidae of the tropical region is Actias maenas. In 

 the year 1847 Doubleday has bestowed this name upon 

 a female and a year later a male has been named Actias 

 leto by the same author (Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. 19, 

 pag. 95 ; Transactions Entom. Soc. London, vol. 5, pag. li). 

 Doubleday's female type originates from Silhet, the male 

 from India Orientalis (very undefinite!). It was unknown 

 to Doubleday and also to Walker, that maenas and leto 

 belong to the same species, the latter giving in the List 

 of spec, of the British Mus. (pag. 1263) a diagnosis of 

 a male Tropaea maenas. After Rothschild's publication it 

 is unquestionable that the species ought to be named 

 ,,maenas^^ and that „^eto" is a mere synonym. 



In the East-Indies the females, which differ very much 

 from the males, seem to be decidedly more numerous than 

 the males. This we understand from the rearing experi- 

 ments by the late Dr. H. W. van der Weele and from 

 those in the Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam. The Leyden 

 Museum possesses also twice more females than males. 

 The same may be the case in British-India. On the other 

 hand on Celebes the males of a variety seem to be more 

 numerous than the females (Deutsche Entomologische Zeit- 

 schrift „Iris", Jahrg. 1909, pag. 24). 



ISTotes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXV. 



