89 



long slender club not scaled. Abdomen long and slender, projecting 

 beyond the margin of the hind wing. All the males have one or 

 more pencils of hair (scent brushes "?) on the costa of the hindwing, 

 which is hidden in the overlapping of the forewing. The sexes 

 are nearlj^ always neurationally different in the hindwing, often 

 markedly so. 



The larvfe are mostly cylindrical, with short tubercles, in some 

 genera with long appendages on segment 2, as is found in Hirsiitis. 

 Their foodplants are usually, if not invariably, what are deadly 

 poisons to man. The Apocynaceiv and Solanacetc contain chiefly the 

 very few known pabula. 



According to Gappy, who has reared several of the species of 

 Ithoiiiii)M- to be found in the Island of Trinidad, the eggs are laid 

 singly in the cases of Hii-.'^ntis { = Iithnrea) iiiei/ara SbXid Heterosais 

 { = Hij/)oleria ocalea), but in batches of from twelve to twenty-five in 

 the case of Mechanitis reritahilis. They are described as conical or 

 spindle-shaped and ribbed longitudinally in the two latter, but 

 having cell-like depressions in the former, which are well defined 

 for a third of the height down. They are laid on either the upper 

 or the under surfac;e of the leaf. Mr. Guppy speaks of the larv^ 

 as always sluggish, but in appearance they can be very dissimilar. 

 Thus TitJiorea uief/ara, of which he gives a figure in the appendix to 

 my Trinidad Catalogue in the " Trans. Ent. Soc," 1904, PI. xviii., 

 fig. 3-3a, 86, is " black and white, even almost black, but occasionally 

 lilac tinted and less opaque looking": whilst Hi/poleria ocalea is 

 semi-transparent like 2IecJia)uti!< reritabilis when newly hatched, 

 changing later to a transparent bottle green with a greenish white 

 head. When mature sometimes more or less translucent greenish, 

 paler or clearer, but without any definite markings save a dorsal 

 stripe caused by the food showing through the skin. It will thus 

 be seen that while some larvie are opaque and ornamented with 

 black and white markings, as in TitJiorea tneijara, others are translu- 

 cent and shew the contents of the larva's body. Such a variation 

 in the larvie within the hmits of one sub-family is remarkable and 

 I know of no comparable instance, certainly not amongst the butter- 

 flies. Transparent skinned larvjB one usually connects with an 

 internal feeding habit, or at least a concealed feeding habit, such as 

 between two spun leaves or in a curled up leaf ; yet Mr. Guppy 

 says nothing about such a habit, and in fact speaks of Hi/poleria 

 ocalea as feeding from the underside of the leaf, where it remains 

 coiled round with its head touching its body. 



" The pupfe in contrast to the long, thin bodies of the butterflies 

 are mostly short and stout. They have often brilliantly shining 

 metallic glossy surfaces, the gloss of which, however, fades after the 

 death of the pupa." — (Hsensch). 



It will be noted that, both by the larval and pupal characters, 

 there is strong affinity with the Danaids. Whether the poisonous 

 nature of the foodplants has any eft'ect as to the palatability of the 



