50 SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



Tlie genus Danais, also numerously represented in tlie Oriental Region, 

 has but two species known to inhabit the African continent, viz., the 

 very widely- spread D. Chrijsifpus (Linn.) and a variety of B. Limniace 

 (Cram.) The ten remaining Ethiopian Danaincc belong to the endemic 

 genus Amauris, very closely allied to Danais. 



South Africa possesses only four known species of the Sub-Family, 

 viz., Danais Chrysippus, and three species of Amauris, two of which 

 inhabit also South Tropical Africa, while the third, A. Echeria (Stoll), 

 has occurred north of the equator at Fernando Po. All these four 

 species are the direct objects of the remarkable mimicry by butterflies 

 of other groups which has been mentioned above, and the known cases 

 of which in South Africa are tabulated at p. 37. 



The plants eaten by the Danainw larvaB mainly belong to the 

 Orders Asdcpiadaccm and Aiiocijnaccm ; but according to a note by Dr. 

 Thwaites (Moore's Lepicl. of Ceylon, i. p. 2), some of them in Ceylon 

 feed also on species of fig. 



Genus DANAIS. 



Danais, Latreille, Encyc. Meth., ix. p. 10 (18 19), [Part]. 



Euplcea, Fabricius, Syst. Glossat., in Illiger's Mag., vi. p. 280 (1807), [Part]. 



Danais, E. Doubl, Gen. Diurn. Lep., i. p. 89 (1847), [Part]. 



Imago. — Antennae rather short, about half as long as the whole 

 body, from -i to | the length of the fore-wings, gradually but distinctly 

 clubbed. Fore-wings prolonged in apical region ; apex rounded ; hind- 

 margin slightly hollowed; inner margin rather prominent in basal 

 half ; first subcostal nervule given ofi" a little before the end of dis- 

 coidal cell, and ending freely on costa, — second at end of cell, 

 immediately above junction of upper radial nervule, — third midway 

 between second and fourth, — fourth terminating at apex, — fifth a little 

 below apex ; disco-cellular nervules forming a rather acute angle at 

 junction of lower radial nervule. Hind-ioings rather elongate, but 

 obtusely rounded ; costa nearly straight ; discoidal cell rather short, 

 its extremity widened, obliquely closed by lower disco-cellular nervule, 

 which forms an acute angle with third median nervule ; on lower side 

 of first median nei-vule, or between it and submedian nervure, the ^ 

 with a small pouch or sac, in some species free and very prominent 

 on the under side. Fore-legs y&cj small, about equal in size in the 

 two sexes ; tarsi in the ^ one- or indistinctly two-jointed, in the $ 

 indistinctly three- or four-jointed. Middle and hind legs with tarsi 

 well spined ; the terminal claws long, without pulvillus or paronychia. 

 Abdomen considerably shorter than inner margin of hind-wings. 



Larva. — A pair of long dorsal filaments on the third segment ; a 

 similar pair of shorter ones on the twelfth segment ; sometimes (as in 

 JD. ChrysijJlous) with a third pair of moderate length on the sixth segment. 



