Publ. S. VII. 1913. MORPHO. By H. Fruhstorfee. 353 



in motion and the magnificent play of colours of the upper surface is perfected by the silvery decoration of the 

 under. When the ^^ come upon an open track they follow it impetuously, as if to give free scope to their 

 powers of flight. The $$ awake much later than their suitors, as a rule not until towards midday. Their 

 flight is then, however, not continuous like that of the light-wingetl i^,j', hut sluggish, aimless, heavy, as if in 

 a dream, and it alternates with frequent pauses for rest, quite in the mamier of some lost, frightened crea- 

 ture, driven by unconscious impulses. But when they have paired and are disturbed by the collector an in- 

 teresting scene ensues, the huge V flutters heavily about with its inert partner until it has again obtained 

 a foothold. The rose-tinted under surface of the 5", with its large ocelli, contrasts with tlie much darker 

 one of the (^ and is admirably concealed from the prying eyes of enemies in the shadow of the foliage or 

 the coiifusion of brown, withered leaves. In contrast to rAe/ewor and the species of the iphimedeia groii]), how- 

 ever, menelans keeps nearer to the ground, and according to Dr. Hahnel it even abandons its aimless jerky 

 movements when it passes over rivers, in the consciousness of safety which the wet element under it affords. 

 The remarkable impression wliicli the Morphids call forth in European travellers seems to be shared by the na- 

 tives, only with this difference, that they see in them notJiing attractive, but associate them in their ideas 

 with the embodiment of malevolent spirits. According to Dr.^KocH-GRiJNBERG (Two Years among the Indians, 

 Berlin 1910) the large azure -blue butterfly ,,Tataloko'\ which enchants the eye with its brilliant colouring and 

 looks like a little piece of the isky come down, is one of the most dangerous demons. It has its abode in Yuni- 

 pary Cachoeira, the first and highest of the multitude of falls and rapids in the Rio Oaiary-Uaupes, where it 

 brews malaria in a large pot, so that all who drinJ': of the water fall sick. As a matter of fact Dr. Koch 

 had personal experience that malaria does occur on this otherwise healthy river above the cataract, in conse- 

 quence of the quite different, white, almost stagnant water there. The mask of the butterfly, which the na- 

 tives put on in the ,,Morpho'' dance, is well characterized by the wickerwork wings, painted with gay pat- 

 terns, which are attached to both sides of the body, and by the curved proboscis composed of Cij^o (a climb- 

 ing plant) *). The zigzag marking on the breast of the mask indicates the fluttering of the butterfly. The 

 dancer holds in one hand the symbol of the pernicious activities of his demon, the driiddng-cup, on which he 

 beats time with a small stick. — menelaus L. (69 c S, 71 b $), the name-type, is at the same time the smallest memlaus. 

 race of the collective species; the $ was named nestor by CIramer, a name which by oversight has been trans- 

 ferred to the (^ on our plate. As may be seen from the figure, the S i*^ '^sXo. blue, but with extremely in- 

 tensive reflections. The $ has only quite small white discal patches and the white spots on the discocellular 

 are less developed than in the other races. Surinam, apparently not very common, as my collector Michaelis 

 diu-ing his two visits there only handed over quite a few examples. — terrestris Btlr. is the geographical (errestris. 

 race from the Lower Amazon, first made luiown from Vdla Nova (the present \^illa Bella) ; its under surface 

 is cinnamon-brown with somewhat more pronounced rows of bronze-green spots proximally to the small ocelli, 

 which in the V a-^ placed in a white foreground. ^ above already somewhat more'_broadly bordered with black 

 than tnenekms from Guiana; $ with the subapical patches on the forewing prolonged and the white transoel- 

 lular band considerably broader and also extending further towards the middle of the wing. From Obidos in 

 my collection. As tnelanippe Btlr. an aberration was described with only one eye-spot on the underside of the melanippe. 

 forewing. — melacheilus Stgr. The blaclc bordering of the S3 i« already essentially widened and in the $, melacheilus. 

 although the proximal decoration of the ocelli on the under surface is considerably enlarged and assumes a hght 

 silvery gloss, yet on the upper surface the blue is so much reduced that only a narrow median area of it persists 

 (much as in M. achilles) and the entire basal area is again occupied by the black ground-colour. There is also 

 a corresponding reduction of the white transceUidar spot of the forewing. Upper Amazon as far as Iquitos. 

 — occidentalis Fldr. is a further local form, which I formerlj^ regarded as identical with melacheilus, but occidmtalis. 

 examples entirely'discovered by A. H. Fassl have shown me that both sexes differ beneath from melacheilus in 

 the broad median bands of both wings, \vhich in the J are bronze-green, but in the $ brilliantly silvery rnd 

 esentally widened. The markings of the upperside in the $ indicate a retrogression to the name-type and 

 occidentalis $ only differs from Surinam examples in its smaller size and the somewhat more pronounced white 

 spots. Base of the wings as in terrestris, dark blue with violet reflections, but not black as in melacheilus. Upper 

 Rio Negro from about 800 m. According to Dr. Hahnel occidentalis flies all the year round. — ■ nestira Hbn. nestira. 

 designates the handsome Brazilian branch-race, of which Hubner figures a ^ with dark upper surface and very 

 broad black apical and distal bordering on the forewing. As just such examples occur in Santa Catharina it 

 may be assumed that the type came from the southern provinces of the country. — Larva according to Dr. 

 WiLHELM Muller witli a pattern in the last stadium which betrays the closest relationship to that of Morpho 

 achillides in its first. The light spots in the medio-dorsal line are almost entirely suppressed. Ground-colour 

 of the body liver-brown mixed with black, two large yellow-green, dark-edged spots in the middle of the dorsum. 



*) Dance-masks of this sort are exhibited in the very rich South American section of the .Museum of Etlmology in Ber- 

 lin, of which Koch's celebrated collection constitues not only the most riclily coloured Init also i\ui best preserved and la- 

 belled part. 



V 45 



