( 508 ) 



The first name given to a North Indian specimen alone is an/na, based npon 

 an aberrant, melanistic inJividnal by Moore in Cat. Lep. Ins. Miis. E. I. Co. i. 

 p. 156. t 3a. f. 4 (1867). The North Indian subspecies, distinguished in the 3 

 from A. hi/pei-hiits /ii/per/>iits by the presence of a conspicuous androconial fold on 

 M^ of the forewing, lias therefore to be referred to as : 



A. hyperbius aruna. 

 Antanartia gen. no v. 



Typus : PupiUo Niimphalis Plmleraliis deliiis Drury, Jlhisii: Ex. his. iii. p. 18. t. 14. f. 5. G (1782) 

 (Sierra Leone). 



The classification of the hair\-eyed Nymphalids allied to Vanessa is in an 

 unsatisfactory state, the genera being largely based on one of the most unreliable 

 characters —namely, the outline of the wings. As we know from Precis that the 

 outline of the wings varies considerably within tlie limits of some of the species 

 of that genus, one may a priori conclude that a difl'ereuce in the shape of the 

 wings in the allied Nymphalids can hardly be considered to be by itself of generic 

 value. This is neither the place to give a revision of the genera allied to Vanessa, 

 nor have we at jiresent the time to compare all the known species thoroughly, 

 as would be necessary for a satisfactory arrangement of these insects. But having 

 here to enumerate three species of this relationship, we had either to accept 

 as valid the general belief that two of them belonged to the American genus 

 Hlipunartia, and that the third, though similar in colour, was a member of the 

 cosmopolitan genus Pyrameis, or to investigate ourselves the question of the generic 

 position of ubi/.^sinica, hippomene, and scliaeneiu. The association of the last two 

 species with a number of American Nymphalids in one genus Hijpnnartia has been 

 brought forward again and again in memoirs on geographical distribution as 

 evidence for a connection between the Aethiopiau and Neotropical faunae, and 

 hence as evidence for a former direct connection between the respective continents. 

 A comparison of the Neotropical and African species of Uypanartia, however, 

 proved to us at once not only that the supposed generic identity of these American 

 and African insects was illusor}-, but also that the so-called African Hypanartia 

 are less nearly related to the American ones than to the African " Pyrumeis " 

 abyssinica. 



The American Hypunartia stand, in one very curious character, in contra- 

 distinction to all (?) Nymphalinae, being in this character sharply separated at 

 least from all allies of Vanessa. The ninth and tenth abdominal tergites of the 

 mule of Lepidoptera, as is well known, are not sharply separated from one another. 

 They are generally strongly chitinised, and mesially jiroduced into the supra-anal 

 hook (which is either mesially divided or simple). The eighth tergite is normally 

 truncate, not diflering essentially from the preceding segments. In all the 

 American Uypanartia, and here only, the eighth tergite is produced into a mesial 

 hook. This hook lies above the supra-anal one (tenth tergite), concealing it from 

 view. The peculiar structure has not been noticed before, as far as we know. 

 Messrs. Godman & Salviu, in Biol. Centr. Amer., Rhop. i., simply state that the 

 tegumeu {i.e. the tenth tergite) of the males of Hypanartia is strongly developed. 



The series of American species included in Ih/parnnrtia fall in two natural 

 groups, which may have the rank of genera, Lethe and allies being characterised by 



