[Reprinted from The Hntomologist’s Record, Vol. 12, No. 11, 
November 15th 1900. 
Hypolimnas misippus captured at sea. 
By Professor EDWARD B. POULTON, M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.8., &e. 
Referring to the notes on this species in vol. xi., p. 822, and vol. 
xii., p. 80, of The E'ntomologist’s Record, | am now, owing to the kind- 
ness of Captain E. P. Ellis, able to supply a full account of the 
circumstances under which he made the interesting capture of three 
females (two of the variety inaria) and two males, over 500 miles from 
land. The notes sent me by Captain Ellis were made by him on 
the sailing ship Winefred on a voyage from Australia, and are as 
follows :— 
‘“May 5th, 1893. In 00° 36’ N. lat. and 26° 42’ W. long., a swarm of butter- 
flies about the ship; they appear to be all of one kind.” 
‘May 9th, 1893. Iu 3°56’ N. lat. and 27° 20’ W. long. Butterflies all over 
the ship; the sailors knocking them down with their caps from one end of the 
ship to the other.” 
Captain Ellis also informs me that during these days the ship had 
passed through the region of the doldrums with calms and rain squalls 
between the N.E. and S.E. trade winds. To the best of Captain 
Kllis’s recollection and opinion all the butterflies belonged to one 
swarm and were of the same kind on both occasions. The ship was 
then nearly on the line between Cape St. Roque and Sierra Leone, and 
680 miles from the former, 960 miles from the latter. Although the 
African coast was far more distant than the South American, I cannot 
doubt that the insects came from the former. Indeed, I put down 
tropical West Africa as first among the suggestions thrown out in my 
note (vol. xii., p. 80). The only other possibility is tropical South 
America, a country in which H. misippus has comparatively recently 
established itself and is spreading rapidly. The insufficient observa- 
tions that have been made in South America do not justify the belief 
that the maria form of the female is present in large proportion, 
while two out of the three females captured at sea belonged to this 
variety—a proportion entirely consistent with our much more exten- 
sive series of observations upon this species in West Africa. Further- 
more, the species is not sufficiently abundant in South America to 
render it probable that these vast swarms can have come from there. 
The observation throws much light upon the comparatively recent 
intrusion of the species into South America, and its even later 
spread to the Canary Islands, and goes far to explain its extraordinarily 
wide distribution in the Old World. 
Tam making a special study of this most interesting species, and 
