Puhl. ;.s\ rv. 1915. PREPONA. By H. FRrHSTORFBR. 561 



uncus, being somewhat thickened and set witli irregularly arranged protuberances and spines. The uncus 

 itself is rather long, in its appendage to the tegunien sliarply pressed in like a saddle, then it runs straight 

 on to its end which is curved and l)ent downwards with its tip, similar to the beak of a pelican. The 

 clasping-organs, harpae, join two smaller lateral cones of the tegumen and form faintly chitinized, longitudinal- 

 triangular tips, being exteriorly densely set with warts and tiny short hairs, but beside more sparsely set with 

 hair of different length. Below the harpae, on both sides of the tegumen-ring, a trough-shaped sella protrudes, 

 which is outside provided with many small, pointed protuberances, on which the slender, somewhat curved 

 penis rests. The saccus is short and obtuse. All the parts are liable to slight variations. The saddle at the 

 appendage of the uncus is more or less sharply pressed in, the uncus itself more or less strongly curved. 

 The lateral appendages below it are more or less strongly clubbed at their ends, and the dents and protuberances 

 longer or shorter developed, and irregularly arranged. The harpae exhibit more slender or more clumsy tips, 

 dorsally at the base more or less gibbous, the long hairs stronger or more sparse, sella longer or shorter. This 

 variability of the single parts of the organ is not bound to one and the same form, so that it repeats itself in 

 the same or nearly the same way in laertes typicus and penelope on the one hand, and in antikleia on the 

 other hand. — pallidior Friihst. (Ill a), the Paraguay-race of laertes bears the same relationship to the typical ixillid'n 

 form as eugenes diluta Fruhsl. to eugene.s Bates from the Amazon River, for on the under surface of the hind- 

 wings we notice an obliteration of all the black spots and markings. The yellowish colouring of the anal 

 angle of the forewings is also very much faded and the distal half of the hindw ings is tinged in a faded grey, 

 instead of the intense brownish-grey distinguisliing laertes from Brazil. The ocelli are less distinct and the 

 black submarginal band of the forewings is less dentate. On the upper surface, the blue discal bands are more 

 profusely and deeply parted by the black ground-colour, the band itself being somewhat lighter blue. Para- 

 guay, Rio Grande do Sul. — The name of laertes Hbn., finally, is transferred to the Braziliair subspecies on 

 account of different analogies of the under surface. I do not possess specimens fully corresponding with Hueb- 

 ner's figure (as depicted in Wytsman's edition Table 70). But relatively large black submarginal dots of the 

 forewings exhibited in the said figure make almost the impression of an aberrative, especially dark specimen. 

 ^^ from Brazil are relatively small with only one blue costal spot. $5 remarkably large, with one large, distinct, 

 and two effaced transcellular spots, distal part of both the wings beneath intensely grey with few ochreous 

 patches. Not of very frequent occurrence from Espiritu Santo to Theresopolis in Santa ('atharina, while speci- 

 mens fi'oiu Rio Grande do Sul ajiproximate already pullldior from Paraguay. 



P. omphale. A wonderful form wliic:h we are not justified in calling a species, since in P. laertes 

 penelope Fruhst. there occur already specimens with traces of a black, proximal blue reflection on the blue median 

 area of the forewings. On the other hand, the uncommonly pointed wing-contour and the exclusive occurrence 

 of omphtile on the Antilles and in Honduras, where laertes does not occur, argue in favour of a certain indepen- 

 dence. In any case omphale — and even if it were only a form — has, for nearly 125 years, been misconceived 

 by us. Cr\mer has figured it wonderfully, though only its under surface, adding a short, but fully suffi- 

 cient diagnose running thus: ,,Over the black ground of the wings there is yet a dark violet reflection." Never- 

 theless he denominated it in 1775 as demophon, which name was already })reoccupied by Linne in 1764. 

 HuEBN'ER who. in 1816, attempted a revision of Prepona in his list of noted butterflies, was quite right in deno- 

 minating Cramer's figure as omphnle. In 1823 when Godart published his celebrated Encyclopedia, Hitebker's 

 denomination was overlooked, and Godart introduced for omphale Hhn.. the new name of deinodice. This 

 denomination grew to be popular on LrfAs figuring successfully Ihe upper surface in his ,,Lepidopteres exoti- 

 que^" in 1835, to which Boisduval supplied another second figure of tiic under surface. Kirby in his Cata- 

 logue, added the species as a synonym to laertes Hhn., from which Stauoinger, supplying again a figure, discon- 

 nected it. denominating it deuiodire and taking gnoriinu Bates to be an aberration of if. That is the reason why 

 omphale is labelled as gnorima in all the collections. From laertes with which Kirby unites it, omphale differs 

 above by the reddish instead of yellow scent-tufts of the hindwings *). The blue median band, especially of 

 the $, runs more rectilinearly as well as the black streaks secluding the cellule distally on the under suiface 

 of the hindwings and being generally more strongly prominent. Mr. Michael reports in a letter addressed to 

 me about the habits: ,,0n September 28th 1904, I found, near Juanjui on the Upper Huallaga, at a place 

 with an especially delicious or flavoured odour, crowded together into a heap, far more than 30 Prepona of 

 all the species occiu'ring there, and — most amazingly — in the midst of them in the thickest scuffle there 

 was an Agrias heatifica (resp. beatn). The Prepona were so voracious in their feast, that I could quite easily 

 pick out first the Agrias with my fingers, then I chose the best Prepona, at first 2 specimens of omphale, some 

 (nnphinrirhus, 3 de.vamenus. Only after I had thus grasped about 10 of the best with my fingers, .'ome of 

 the others began to fly away." The most characteristic mark of the species, the wonderful violet reflection 



*) The clasping-organs differ init quite sligliMy from P. luvrti's by a vintrally soiuowliat nioic (cnvix \alvr. .Most 

 interesting is a chitinous thickening near the ))ase of the valve likewise oecuiiiiig in .Xyrkwi claiidhia. 



V 71 



