to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley. 345 



and less distinctly macular than P. Echelux, composed of six spots, of which two 

 smaller, anal ; the next three much elongated, like the corresponding ones in the 

 $ , and the sixth small, triangular. The rest as in P. Eclieluf J . This beautiful 

 insect, apparently so distinct, tak' s the place of Echelus on the north shore of the 

 Amazon, but it does not pass apparently the Rio Negro to the west. It is evi- 

 dently a local sub-species of Echelus. At Cayenne there occurs a form, appa- 

 rently intermediate between the two; but the individuals there vary considerably 

 amongst themselves, like species in process of transition. I add a description of it 

 in a note, from two exainples which I obtained lately in Paris.* 



P. Mneides $ , Esper, Aiisl. Schmett. t. 15, f. 3, $. 



Cram. t. 279 A. B. (as Apneas, Lin. $). 

 ? , Gray, Cat. B.M. p. 51, pi. 9, f. 8 (as Mneides, % ). 



This species occurs in Guiana and on the Lower Amazons. At Par&, where 



Echelus is so common, it is not found at all, but is extremely plentiful on the 

 Tocantins. It reappears at St. Paulo, near Peru, as a well-marked local sub- 

 species. Its habits are those of Echelus; it frequents rather the high and dry 

 parts of the forest, but yet those where tliere is an alluvial soil, especially delight- 

 ing in the cacao groves, and the wildernesses of second growth forest usually 

 found in their vicinity. 



P. Olivencius, nob. 



$ . Size, shape and ground colour of wings as in P. JEneides $ . Fore wing 

 with a large sub-triangular, greyish-green spot, nearly touching the hind margin 

 about the middle, its apex reaching the second median nervule. Hind wing with 

 a large crimson palmate spot as in P. JEneides. J. Fore wing spotless. Hind 

 wing with a belt of pale carmine spots, six in number, extending in a waved line 

 across the wing, a little beiiind the cell; the spots are nearly equal in size, similar 

 in length to those of Echelus J, but much more widely separated by the inter- 

 vening nervures. This sub-species or local form of P. /Eueides is abundant at 

 the village of St. Paulo de Oliveucia, near the frontier of Peru. I have also seen 

 an example of it from Bogota, in the Hopean Collection at Oxford. At St. Paulo 

 it is constant to the characters given above. 'J'he most westerly point of the range 

 of the typical JEneides is Obydos, 13^ degrees of longitude to the east of St. 

 Paulo. Between the two stations no form resembling either occurs. P. yEneides, 

 like P. Proteus, is a form which seems to have spread over the whole of tropical 

 America, but presenting indifferent regions well-defined and constant local forms, 

 which have been treated by authors as distinct species. Thus, in the plains of 

 Bolivia, south eastward of the locality of P. Olivencius, there occurs P. Eurybates 

 (Gray, Cat. p. 51, pi. 9, f. 1). Westward of the Andes, at Guayaquil, it pre- 

 sents us the form of P. Timins (Gray, Cat. p. 50, pi. 9, f. 5). Northward, on the 

 Orinoco, it occurs as P. Agathocles (Kollar, Beitr. Ins. f. New Gran. p. 2). Fur- 

 ther north, beginning in the east at Berbice, in Guiana (Cram. t. iv. p. 199), it 

 spreads through Venezuela and New Granada as P. Eurimedes (Cram. 386, E.F.). 



* P. Echephron, nob. $ . Size, shape and ground colour of the wings as in 

 P. Echelus. Fore wing strongly produced at tip, as in that species, with a green 

 spot between the sub-median nervure and the second median nervule, divided 

 into two unequal ones by the first median nervule; beneath immaculate. Hind 

 wing with a large crimson spot, divided by the median nervules into four, of which 

 the first, second and third are very much more elongated than in P. Echelus. T 

 obtained one example from Dr. 13oisduval and one from a dealer at I^aris, and 

 was informed they were sent from the interior of French Guiana by M. Bar. I 

 should consider this to be the Opleus, Godt., did. he not distinctly say the fringe ia 

 that species was while. 



VOL. V. N.S. PART VIII, FEB. 1861. A A 



