54 DANAIS LIMNIACE AND DANAIS MELISSA. 
NOTE IV. 
ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DANAIS 
LIMNIACE, CRAM. AND DANAIS MELISSA CRAM. 
BY 
R. VAN EECKE. 
(With a textfigure). 
In „The Rhopalocera of Java”, Danaidae, Satyridae, 
Ragadidae and Elymniadae by M. C. Piepers and 
P. C. T. Snellen (the Hague, M. Nyhoff, 1913) I have 
found on page 30, that D. melissa Cram. should be 
synonymous with D. limniace Cram. On the same page 
one read: „The forms of this species (limniace Cram.) 
have been dealt with extensively by Fruhstorfer in 
„Berliner Entom. Zeitschr.”, 1899, and by Dr. L. Martin 
in „Deutsche Entom. Zeitschr. Iris”, 1910, where they have 
based several species and subspecies on these various 
forms; the latter attributes them to climatic influences. 
I suspect that here again we have simply to deal with 
phenomena of colour evolution; the specially pronounced 
spreading of the white, which plays the chief role here, 
being doubtless nothing else.” 
Always it will be a danger to determine a butterfly 
only by its external morphological characters, especially: 
by its pattern and colour, even when people will explain 
the differences of pattern and colour by phenomena of 
colour evolution. Mr. Piepers is here not right, because 
there are also anatomical differences, which separate the 
two forms of Danais specifically. In „Die Grossschmet- 
terlinge der Erde”, Tom. 9, pag. 202, Mr. Fruhstorfer 
has published, that the valvae of the two quoted species 
as well as the uncus are different. He wrote the following: 
„Untersuchungen der Generationsorgane (melissa and sep- 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXX VI. 
