Butler. — On the Buiterjiies of Xeiv Zealand. 265 



by the tail and a girdle across the middle. (Tlie true Papiliones have a 

 leaf-like appendage to the fore tibife — a character which approximates the 

 family to the Hesperidce and moths. 



Subfamily 1. Pierincv. Abdominal margin of the hind wing not curved 

 inwards. 



Subfamily 2. Papilionincs. Abdominal margin of the hind wing curving 

 inwards. 



Family 5. Hesperid.e. Six perfect legs in both sexes; hind tibiae, with 

 few exceptions, having two pairs of spurs. Pupa secured by many threads, 

 or enclosed in a slight cocoon, "=•= 



Excepting that a few sub-families have been added, this arrangement 

 remains in its entu'ety, and is the basis of the classification adopted by all 

 the rising generation of European lepidopterists. 



The butterflies of New Zealand are at present restricted to three of the 

 five families — NymphalidcB, LyccBnidce, and Papiiionidcs. 



Family Nymphalidse, }Vestivood. 

 This group is represented in New Zealand by three subfamilies — 

 HanaincB, Satijrincd, and Nymphalincs. 



Subfamily Danain^e, Bates. 



Danais, Latreille. 



1. Danais arckippus. 



Papilio arcMppus, Fabricius, Spec. Ins., p. 55, n. 243 (1781). 



" Alls repandis falvis venis margineque albo punctate nigris : anticis 

 macuHs apicis fulvis : habitat in America Meridionali."! — Fahr. 



I have not thought it necessary to quote the full synonymy of this 

 introduced species : if required, it will all be found in Kirby's " Synonymic 

 Catalogue." 



Mr. Charles V. Kiley, in his " Thh-d Annual Eeport of the noxious, 

 beneficial, and other Insects of the State of Missouri," gives the following 

 interesting account of the habits and earlier stages of this beautiful butterfly 

 (pp. 144-8). " The species feeds upon most of the different kinds of milk- 

 weed or Silk-weed ( Asclepias), and also upon dogbane (Apocynum), according 

 to some authors. It shows a wonderful dishke, however, to the poke 

 miLk-weed ( Asclepias phytolaccoides ) , and I was surprised to find that larva3 

 furnished with this plant Avould wander about their breeding-cages day after 

 day, and would eventually die rather than touch it, though they would 

 eagerly commence devouring the leaves of either A. tuberosa, curassavica, 

 cornuti, or purpurascens, as soon as offered to them. 



* Journal of Entomology, No. X., pp. 176-7 (1864). 

 t Whenever Fabricius was doubtful as to wbether a species was obtained in North 

 or South America, he seems to have put it down as South, 



Hi 



