202 MR. F. MOORE ON LIMNAINA AND EUPLCEINA. [Apr. 17, 



In 1819 Godart, in vol. ix. of the ' Encyclop. Methodique,' re- 

 described the then known species, under the genus Danais. 



The next author in point of date is Horsiield, who, in 1828, pub- 

 lished the first part of the 4to Catalogue of the Lepidoptera in the 

 Museum of the East-India Company, and on plate 3 of that work 

 contributed illustrations of the larvae of five species which he reared 

 in Java. 



In 1836, Boisduval ('Species general des Lepidopteres,' p. 165) 

 arranges the group in his seventh family of the Rhopalocera. 



Doubleday and Hewitson, in their grand work ' The Genera of 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera,' p. 84 etc. (184/), limited the Danaidse to the 

 three genera Eupkea, Danais, and Hestia, placing Hamadryas at 

 the end of the family Heliconidse. In Euplcea the species enume- 

 rated are 37 in number ; and these are arranged in succession, mostly 

 according to the presence of the " sexual mark " or, as it is termed, 

 " vitta " on the inner margin of the fore wing in the male. In 

 Danais, these authors arrange the species into four unnamed 

 groups, which they state to be " easily distinguished in general by 

 the form and markings of the wings, independently of slight structural 

 diiferences." The first group contains the species n3.vae.di phcedon, 

 agialea, echane, niavius and its allies, " all African species, the 

 males of which have a patch of peculiarly formed scales situated 

 on the submedian nervure of the hind wing." The second group is 

 composed mostly of the fulvous species, which have the sexual spot 

 on the first median nervule, viz. gilippus, erippus, chrysippus, 

 plexippus, affinis, &c. The third group contains " the species having 

 the sexual spot upon the first median nervule or submedian nervure," 

 viz. aglea, cleona, melissa, similis, limniace,juventa, tytia, albata, &c. 

 In the fourth group are placed those species in which the sexual 

 spot is absent. 



In the Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1853, M. Lucas described several new 

 species of the genus Euplaa. 



In 1857, in the 8vo Catalogue of Lepidoptera of the East-India 

 Company's Museum, pp. 121 to 135, I enumerated the species of 

 Danais, Evplaia, Ideopsis (n. gen.), and Hestia then in the collection, 

 described several new species, and figured various larvae and pupae. 



In ' Exotic Butterflies,' vols. ii. and iii. 1858-66, Hewitson described 

 and figured some very interesting new species of Euplcea. 



In 1 862, Mr. Bates published, in the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society, vol. xxiii. part 2, his " Contributions to the Insect fauna of 

 the Amazon valley." In this memoir the systematic positions of the 

 subfamilies Heliconinse and Danainae (including the Danaoid Helico- 

 niuae) are most laboriously treated of, the Danaoid Heliconinae 

 being placed at the head of the Order Lepidoptera. In this memoir 

 also Mr. Bates makes known the extraordinary phenomenon of 

 mimicry occurring in the Heliconidae and in other families of 

 Butterflies, as well as in Moths. 



In his 'Prodromus Systematis Lepidopterorum,' published in 

 1865, Herrich-SchafFer places the Heliconina and Danaina as the 

 first and second families of the Butterflies. In Heliconina, besides 



