212 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



Family NYMPHALID^j. •] 



Sub-Family Danain#. 



1. Danais ( Tirumala) limniace, Cramer. 



Very common in the valleys below Mussoorie and in Dehra Dim 



from April to October. Females have been observed ovipositing > in 



April in the Dun on Marsdenia tenacissima, Wight et Arm, Natural 



- Order Asclepiadece. 



2. Danais {Tirumala) septentrionis, Butler. 

 Rare in Mussoorie itself, but occurs in great numbers in the low 

 valleys about Mussoorie and in the Dun. It is most numerous in the 

 .spring and summer, but like D. limniace^ Cramer, is to be seen 

 almost all the year round in the Dun. The larva in the Dun feeds 

 on Vallaris dichotoma, Wall., Natural Order Asclepiadece. ^ 



' :;i • ■■■'■■ 3. Danais (Limnas) chkysippus, Linnaeus, : i/' 



Very common in Mussoorie and in Dehra Dun almost all the year 



- round. As the species of Asclepiadece which are the food-plants of the 

 larva grows only in the lowest valleys not above 2,500 feet elevation 

 Dibove the sea, all the butterflies seen at greater elevations and in the 

 atation of Mussoorie must emigrate into these regions from below. 

 The albinic aberration of D. chrysippus, the D. alcippus of Cramer = 

 D. alcippoides of Moore, has not been met with in our area. 



. 4. Danais (Salatura) plexippus, Linnaeus. 

 We have followed Professor P. 0. Chr. Aurivillius,; who lias made 

 a special study of the Lepidopteta described by Linnaeus, and has 

 written an admirable paper in 1882 on the subject^ in restoring the 

 name plexippus to the Asiatic butterfly which has, since Mr. S. II. 

 Scudder in 1878 reversed the names and applied plexippus to the 

 American species, been usually referred to the a , Papilio " genutia 

 of Cramer, the latter being a more recent name for the same 

 species according to Aurivillius. The American butterfly will stand 

 as Danais (Anosia) erippus, Cramer, from South America, with a 

 local race in North America, D. erippus menippe, Hiibner. Mr. W. 

 F. Eirby in " The! Entomologist," vol. xxix, p. 188 (1896), well sums up 

 the evidence on the subject thus :— -" Under these circumstances, I am 

 still of opinion that it is better to regard the eastern Danaus, figured by 

 Cramer as Papilio genutia^ as the true Papilio plexippus^ of Linn^, on 

 the strength of his comparing it with D. chrysippus ; and having regard 



