Publ. 23. XI. i!)ii;. HELIC0PT8. By Dr. A. Seitz. 633 



spots in the margin of the hindwing. Tliis form fHes, almost ^vithollt exliibiting any deviations, from Panama 



and Guiana to Ecuador. Tiie (^ of it is an animal with a small orange-red subapical spot as is seen from our 



figure (according to a Surinam-specimen). — In niagnarea fcmii. nov. (122 i) the subapical spot in both sexes tiwijimrca. 



is about three times as large ,and in the $ the yellow spcts in the margin of the liindwing flow together into 



a band; from the Amazon (Pebas, Humaji:a) to Bolivia. — amithrata jorm. nov. (122 i) has the forewings like am'tthraia. 



the ty]iieal form, but the row of spots in the margin of the hindwing .is absent or only indicated; Peru. — In 



chrysomela Btlr.. {122 h, i) the ^ has above no subapical spot at all, while the $ has in the distal part of the rhry.'<oiiiela. 



forewing instead of the yellow oval, a white maculai' band reaching down as far as the anal angle. Central 



America, Colombia as far as Ecuad(a-. — vitellia ab hoik (122 i) are (J(J -with yellow instead of dark orange-red riictlid. 



ground-colour; from Costa Rica. All these forms seem not to be bound to a certain country; at any rate, 



however, the single forms, as far as they are not individual aberrations, strictly separated according to the 



habitats. The butteiflics are. wherever they occur, not rare and like to lie near the water, like the following 



genus, too. 



3. Genus: IIoIic*4»]>i8 F. 



Whereas the MetJwneUa had conic teeth at the ends of the veins of the hindwings, we find in the Heli- 

 copis sabre-shaped tails of a length of up to a centimetre. Another characteristic for the members of this genus 

 are metallic drops on the under surface of the hindwings, which may be of a variable lustre, so that they appear 

 in a certain light golden, in another silvery. As we have already mentioned in the preface to this family, 

 these drop-like spots are plastic, like imjiressed gold-printing, convex towards the under surface, on the upper 

 surface distinguishable as shallow excavations. There are only few species, mostly replacing each other. The 

 larvae are white with a red neck-organ formed of many small cones; they are transformed into brown pupae 

 held with a belt, being provided with fluffy liairs like the larvae and bearing likewise the scarlet organ in the 

 neck. The butterflies mostly rest near the water on the under surface of leaves, are easily knocked off, fly, 

 however, very lazily and soon settle down again, so that they are easily taken. The children of the natives are 

 sometimes seen playing with them, and the Indians have given them a special name signifying as much as 

 ,,smc^ll animals of love", a peculiar correspondence of denomination with Linne who named the first Helicopis 

 known ,,cupido". The butterflies are local, but common at their flying-places ; only in the confines, as for instance 

 South Brazil, they grow rare. 



H. cupido L. (124 a). Black, forewings with a large light-yellow discal spot, hindwings with a dirty cupido. 

 yellow basal part. In the $ the yellow colour is preponderant, only the distal margin of the forewing is black, 

 that of the hindwing brown. Colombian $$ often exhibit in the apical part of the hindwing more a nut-brown 

 darkening; in $$ from Sao Paulo de 01iven§a (UpperAmazon), the distal part of the hindwing is almost entirely 

 black as in the cJ. Amazon- $$ (Para, Itaituba) often have an oblique stripe above the cell-end; in specimens 

 from there, the cell of the forewing and the basal part below it are of a bright orange-yellow, and as they 

 have hereby cpiite a different appearance, I denominate them erotica form. nov. (124 a). — trinitatis form, froju-a. 

 nov. (124 a) are sj^ecimens from tiie Island of Trinidad in which the bordei' of the forewing is only narrow and 

 of a dull dark tinge, but where the brown colouring is continued as far as below the cell and where a dull 

 oblique shade, coming from the costa, confines the cell. In cjcj from Trinidad this marking is constant, while 

 among the $$ there occur beside the figured butterflies also such that are nearly quite bone-white and without 

 markings, which were also found in other places in South America. There they may occur in superior numbers, 

 so that one might be inclined to denote them as a subspecies (Grote). Nearly quite white specimens have 

 been denominated ab. lindeni Grt. (124 b as linderi). — divergens S'ubsp. nov. (124 b) is a very large race which //■"'''/).'/, ^. 

 almost entirely lacks the orange-yellow basal spot of the forewings beneath, whereas the ground of the hind- 

 wings is golden brown; from Huma^'ta on the Rio Madeira. Most peculiar are specimens that are above without 

 markings, like lindeni, beneath, however, on the forewing black and orange spotted. The figured specimen 

 (in the Tring Museum without the habitat being mentioned) resembles beneath a typical cupido except the 

 missing dark margin of the forewing, it is above purely bone-white and has only at the base of the forewing 

 a slight ochreous tinge. I call the strange animal ab. stupenda ab. nov. (124 b). — The larva is white of a silky ■•<fiii,<nda. 

 gloss, with delicately grey shadowy stripes on the sides of the back and above the stigmata. The hairs are 

 also fine white, and behind the head as well as at the 12 th segment there are red pads being undoubtedly 

 warning-organs. The pupa, being of a light yellowish-brownish or greenish-brownish ground-colour, exhibits 

 a white fluff and the bright scarlet at the end of the head. The range of the whole species comprises the eastern 

 part of South America and extends from Trinidad and the northern coast of South America as far as South 

 Brazil where, however, the butterfly grows extremely rare. In Espiritu Santo it is found yet now and then, 

 in Santos I did not capture it, nor did v. Bonninghausen near Rio. 



H. endyniion Cr. {= selene Fldr.) (124 b, c). Forewings bone-white, with fine black margins, in the in,/;/,,,- 



^ with a broad rust-brown base. Hindwings also bone-white, at the distal maiginal part broad black. Beneath, 



the base of the wings is orange and terminates with 2, sometimes contiguous black transverse spots, another 



such a spot extends, behind the cell-end, from the costa into the wing. In the $ the basal brown above is 



V 80 



((//(. 



