Atlditions: DANAIDAE. By Dr. A. Seitz. 1027 



Siibtaniilv ; Itliomiiiiae. 



The Ithomiinae in Trojiical Anu-iiea are entirely subjeet to tlie laws governing all tlie groups of 

 insects which do not like to fly or are bad flyers in this woody region: almost every greater part of a 

 forest, the river-basin of almost every little river has a special mode of marking from which the membeis 

 flying there and taken at exactly the same locality differ to a remarkably little extent. One may often travel 

 for miles and miles without finding a certain species of liltomia or Pteronymin, which may then be suddenly 

 swarming in a surprisingly great number of .specimens at an entirely eircumserijJt place. Thus I once saw 

 on a bush only 2 m high near Santos more than 20 specimens of Meliitnea ixirdlija of which I had before 

 not discovered a single specimen in spite of having been loaming about for many days. Scarcely any spe- 

 cimen of this species flew away from the bush, until all of them were captured: such a behaviour is onlj' 

 met with in well-protected lepidoptera crowded together on confined habitats (in Europe in the genus Zij- 

 gaena). The incredible laziness of these diurnal lepidoptera from the subfamily of t\\e Ithomiinae maybe con- 

 cluded from a remark of Fereeira d'Al.meida in his very nice and biologically most interesting book : 

 ,,fi t u d e s s u r 1 e s L e p i d o p t e r e s d u B r e s i 1" (Melanges 1 e p i d o p t e r o 1 o g i q u e s) 

 nn p. 71, according to which the imagines resting on the blossoms or tips of the branches may be simply 

 taken away with one's fingers; an observation which I can .substantiate for a great number of species of the 

 group. A necessary consequence of this character is the so-called formation of colonies or subordinate races, 

 as by the very rapidly succeeding generations (each generation mostly does not need more than a month for 

 its development) a certain pattern of marking is quickly fixed at a habitat to such a degree that even 

 minute deviations from it number among the very greatest rarities. We may then find at the next habitat 

 of the species a somewhat different colouring, though it shows here the same constancy as the former at the 

 other habitat. I have considered it incorrect to denominate these mostly insignificant though constant de- 

 viations, as it has been clone by others in other cases (such as in the Erycinidne). This method if being 

 consistently performed, \\ould have to increase to an infinite amount, and in composing this chapter on 

 p. 116 to 165 the compiler was also led to confine the denomination to notoriously zoographical races and 

 to avoid the deiromination of subordinate races. The compiler has carried this out very meritoriously, and 

 it seems that up to this day this excellent example has also prevented later describers to coirupt his succinct 

 delineations by hair-splitting processes. May this chapter be also in future exempt from the denomination 

 of transitory forms effacing the exact boundaries, without checking the admittance of really maintainable 

 races and species with the impending opening up of South America *). 



Mechanitis Jysimnia F. (34 b). Larva on Solanum arrebenta; anteriorly very nuich narrowed with 

 a small head: adult larva 31 mm long, of a bright yellow, across the dorsum 2 greyish-blue or greyish-green 

 longitudinal bands; head black. 



Pseudoscada. For the form Ps. (tdam Hew. p. p. (41 c) Ferreiea d'Almeida introduces the name 

 diversivoca and places the species to Dismenitis. — For the other figure of adasa by Hewitson (Exot. Butt, dh-crsivoca. 

 Vol. 4) the same author establishes the species pseudodiversivoca: smaller, the forewing more pointed, the pseudodiver- 

 demi-band and marginal band straighter: the upper discoceilular is absent, the lower more curved. Southern 

 Brazil. 



Ceratinia euryanassa (35 b). Larva on Datura arborea, in the adult stage up to 3 cm long, \\'itli 

 a yellowish-brown head, the body with bright transverse stripes, ventrum deep green; pupa yellowish-brown, 

 the wing-cases of a dingy white, marbled with dark, the pupa itself with numerous small daik spots and 

 markings. Ferreira d"Almeida bases a new genus on this species: Placidula. 



For Cerat. daeta Bsd. the same author introduces the genus Mailsueta. The ? lays the eggs singly 

 on Solanum argenteum. The adult larva is 23 mm long, above of a dingy greenish or bluish grey, beneath 

 \^hitish, on the sides with a yellowish stripe-like colouring, across the dorsum transverse wrinkles of a deeper 

 colouring, j)articularly the anterior part of the larva very nuch wrinkled. 



With the newly established genus Rhadinoptera Ferr. d'Alm. its author combines a number of species 

 that were before ranged in various other genera to which they had been placed according to the neuration, 

 such as Ceratinia, Ithomia, Hypoleria, Heterosais, Pteronymia etc. The first form of this series is: 



Cerat. euponipe Hhn. (35 d). Larva on a Solanea ; in the adult stage 25 mm, above greyish-green, on 

 both its ends whitish, with transverse wrinkles, thoracal segments spotted dark, ventrum ligther. — Pupa green 

 with small metallic spots. 



sivoca. 



*) A similar bcliaviour as wr ha\L' ascertained for the insularly roulined habitats of tln' neotiopieal wooded ilistriet.s 

 for many resident or weak-winsed species of lepidoptera, occurs in moinxtainous species at such places where the alpine halii- 

 tats are isolated by interposed valleys impassable to the aljjine inhabitants, as for instance in the Parnassiac everywhere 

 where these dwellers of mountains are. The one species P. apollo was piovided with more than 100 names, more than 80 

 of theni with the statement of geographically defined habitats. If the denomination is not chequed in analogous cases, 

 certain groiu's in South America will be loaded with a ballast of names that renders the orientation difficult instead of 

 facilitating it. 



