156 Ml-. W. F. Kiiby on Lepidoptera 



XVII. — On the Collection of Lepidoptera formed hy Basil 

 Thomson^ Esq., in the Louisiade Archipelago. By W. F. 

 KiRBY, F.E.S-, Assistant in Zoological Department, 

 British Museum (Natural History). 



The collection of Lepidoptera entrusted to me for examina- 

 tion includes forty-one specimens, belonging to twenty-one 

 species, of which two only are moths. Among the butter- 

 flies I found eight species which appear to be new and 

 which are described below. So far as can be seen from so 

 small a selection, the affinities of the species are mainly 

 Papuan, especially with those previously received from 

 Port Moresby. Several of the species also exhibit strong 

 Moluccan and Australian affinities, while others show a rela- 

 tionship to the insects of Kei, Aru, New Georgia, and other 

 islands lying east or west of the Louisiades. There are not 

 more than one or two species, such as Eurema hecabe and 

 Leptosoma integrum, which exhibit any special relationship 

 to the Indo-Malayan fauna. Perhaps the most interesting 

 of the novelties obtained by Mr. Thomson are the species of 

 Tenaris, belonging to a genus of butterflies which obtains 

 its maximum of development in the Papuan Islands. That 

 so large a proportion of novelties as eight conspicuous butter- 

 flies out of a total of nineteen were collected during a flying- 

 visit to one or two islands sufficiently indicates the richness 

 of the fauna of the Louisiades and the desirability of its being 

 more systematically investigated. 



EHOPALOCERA. 



Nymphalidse. 



Danainje. 

 LiMNAINA. 



Genus ASTIIIPA. 

 Asthijja, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend. 188-3, p. 246. 



1. Asthipa Schenkii. 



Danais Schenkii, Koch, Indo-Austr. Lep.-Fauna, p. 107 (18G5). 

 Danais yloriola, $ var., Butl. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 18GG, p. 57. 



" Eossel Island, Oct. 18, 1888." A pair, male and fe- 

 male. 



This is a larger and paler species than A. ghriola, Butl 



