NYMPHALIDAE. — Introductory. By Dr. A. Seitz. 357 



7. Family: Nymphalidae. 



This gigantic family ■ — even understood in the narrower sense — embraces approximately 2000 American 

 forms, which in spite of apparently great superficial differences yet form a very natural division of the butter- 

 flies. Its delimitation has been worked out on very varying principles. Sometimes they have been grouped 

 together with the SatjTids and Danaids as a subfamily, on account of tlieir agreement with these in the struc- 

 ture of the legs, sometimes the Acraeinae, Aj)atura &nd the genus Heliconius, the Bihlinae and others have been 

 eliminated from them. After the comprehensive works of Dotbleday and Westwood 0. Felder was the first 

 who made the classification of the Nyniphalids a speciel study. But he was too much prepossessed in favour 

 of HERRiCH-ScHAFiER's exaggerated estimate of neuration to be able to estabUsh a purely natural syst«m. 

 Although his jjublication appeared almost at the same time as Herrich-Schaffer's "Revision der Tagfalter", 

 and apparently independently, yet he was bound, with only prepared butterflies before him, to come to pretty 

 simdar results, and he classified essentially according to the number and the origin of the subcostal veins and 

 the presence or absence of a discocellidar vein, although he himself pointed out the worthlessness of these two 

 characters. Evidently neither author knew the function and influence of the discocellular vein and they 

 were also unaware that a discocellular \\hich we fail to detect -with the aid of cm- rough apphances is never- 

 theless frequently present though in a greatly reduced form, or is present in the pupa before emergence. 

 When the wing-stratum is sufficiently firm the discocellular is not oidy unnecessary but it is even detrimental 

 to the flight, as it makes independent movements of the costal and inner-marginal parts of the wing C£uite 

 impossible. A slight bend of the wings, particularly of the hindwing, allows the butterfly to steer its course 

 much more conveniently, hence it is especially the more highly developed species that are without a disco- 

 cellular vein and consequently also even when flying at a great speed never give the same impression of preci- 

 pitation, haste or exertion as when the inflexibiUty of the costal and median systems precludes any saihng 

 pose of the wings. Compare the elegant motion of an Apatura with the unsteady, jerky flight of a pursued 

 Charaxes or a Prepona, which in spite of their great strength give almost the impression of moths dashing 

 about and with a far greater expenditure of energy oidy reach the elevations which an Apatura attains without 

 visible effort by an imperceptible bend of the costa and with scarcely aj^preciable motion of the Mings. Moths 

 without a discocellular, e. g. Actias arte»iis, I have seen ascend without trouble in a straight line vertically 

 skywards, whilst Satyrids, which disappear in the blue heavens, rise in corkscrew-shaped gyrations and Papilio 

 has to raise itself laboriously with continued flutterings. The arrangement of the subcostal veins is also in- 

 adequate to support a classification system, and thus it came about that Felder included Eueides in his Nyni- 

 phalids but omitted Heliconius, thus placing these quite nearly allied genera in two separate families. Herrich- 

 ScHAFFER, however, included Morpho in hisjnore restricted Nymphahds. 



In the meantime later attempts at taxonomy received considerable assistance from the knowledge 

 of the formerly almost entirely unknown larvae. F. Moore and L. de Niceville bestowed special attention 

 on thelAsiatic, H. Burmeister and W.^Muller on the American butterflj^-larvae and thus provided a really 

 solid foundation for a new system. E. Re oter called attention to the systematic utihty of more exact and more 

 specialized anatomical investigations and E, Haase harmonized the results of biological research with the con- 

 clusions'previously arrived at in another way and thus correctly separated off for the first time, under the name 

 ''Acraeomorpha\ the section here accepted by us, in contradistinction to the Satyromorpha and Danaoinorphu. 

 He divided the group into 3 subdivisions, which^he named Heliconini, Acraeini and NympJialini. 



These 3 groups'are unmistakably somewhat further removed from one another than any 2 neighbouring 

 "subfamilies" out, of the number of those into which Haase again spUt up the NymphaUni. Hence we might 

 more accurately classify Haase's 3 groups as subfamilies and the further subdivisions as tribes, so that mc 

 obtain the following scheme for the American Nymphalidae: 



I. Acraeinae. 

 II. Heliconiinae. 

 III. Nymphalinae s. s. 



A. Clothildidi. G. Eimicidi. 



B. Ai'gynnidi. H. Catagrammidi. 



C. Vanessidi, I. Limenitidi. 



D. Biblidi. K. Gynaeciidi. 



E. Diademidi. L. Apaturidi. 



F. Ageroniidi. M. Anaeidi. 



