348 DE. A. G. BUTLER ON THE 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 

 Plate XV. 



Figs. 1, 3, 5. Hypolimnas misippus, § (3 forms). 

 Fig. 2. Banais chrysi-ppus. 

 4. ,, dorippus. 

 6. „ alcippus. 



Plate XVI. 

 Fig. 1. Euplcea Hopfferi. Fig. 2. Hypolimnas polymelia. 



4. „ pyrqion,(^ . 3. „ scopas, (^ . 



6. „ ■ ;, 2- 5. „ „ $. 



Plate XVII. 



Fig. 2. Euplxa polymena. Fig. 1. Hypolimnas, s-^. 



4. Amauris dominicanus. 3. „ marginalis. 



6. „ egialea. 5. ,, dubia. 



An Account of the Butterflies of the Grenus Oliaraxes in the 

 Collection of the British Museum. By Aethtje Gt. BuTiiEE, 

 Ph.D., &c., Senior Assistant-Keeper, Zoological Department. 



[Read 7th November, 1895.] 



One of the first genera which I ever studied, and the first which 

 I monographed, was the genus Gliaraxes, a paper on which I 

 published in 1865 in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 

 in which I recorded sixty-eight species (two of which, however, 

 were noted as doubtful and were subsequently suppressed) : the 

 present paper enumerates no fewer than one hundred and fifty- 

 nine. 



I have followed Prof. Aurivillius in uniting Palla to Gharaxes : 

 if kept separate, it would have to be broken up into several 

 genera, and Gharaxes itself would in like manner have to be sub- 

 divided ; this, indeed, has been done for the Indian species by 

 Mr. Moore ; but apart from outline of wing I have been unable 

 to discover any constant structural characters on which to base 

 these genera. That wing-outline in Gharaxes is not of generic im- 

 portance seems clear, from the fact that (i.) in many of the species 

 it differs to an extraordinary degree in the sexes ; (ii.) the most 

 nearly related species (as, for instance, G. JBalfouri and G. varanes) 

 differ in this respect as much as any of the proposed new genera ; 

 and, lastly, (iii.) it is not uniform, even when apparently so to a 

 casual observer, the shortening or absence of the hind-wing tails 

 occurring abruptly in a single species in the middle of a group. 



When I last arranged Gharaxes, about the year 1892, our 

 series occupied a single cabinet of 20 drawers ; last year, how- 

 ever, Messrs. Salvin and Godman (with their usual liberality) 



