Fereday. — On Danais bercnice. 18i 



Art. XXXV. — Observations on the Occurrence of a Butterfly, new to New 

 Zealand, of the Genus Danais, By R,. W. Fereday, C.M.E.S.L. 

 \^Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterhtnj, 2nd Jamiary, 1874.] 

 In February last I had the pleasure of receiving from my friend, Mr. F. H. 

 Meinertzhagen, of Waimarama, Hawke Bay, a large handsome biitterfly of 

 the genus Danais, captured by him at Waimarama on the 31st January last. 



Upon comparison the species appears to be identical with that of a New- 

 South Wales specimen of Danais, in the Canterbury Museum, received from 

 Mr. C. French, of the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, and labelled by him 

 '•^Danais erippus, N.S.W., supposed to have been introduced. Common 

 Indian and American species." 



There is also another specimen of Danais in the Canterbury Museum, 

 amongst a collection of Californian Lepidoptera, received from Mr. Edwards, 

 of San Francisco, and labelled by him Danias archippus ; and that and the 

 New South Wales and New Zealand species are so alike, that I fail to 

 distinguish any specific difference. That there is a difierence between erippus 

 and archippus we have the authority of Mr. Butler, who had the typical 

 specimens to refer to, and has placed the species apart in the Catalogue 

 (recently prepared by him) of Diurnal Lepidoptera, described by Fabricius, in 

 the collection of the British Museum ; but what the difference is does not 

 appear from the short descriptions of Fabricius and Cramer, quoted by him, 

 and I have no other description to guide me. 



I do not find, either in Mr. Butler's Catalogue, or in the Encyclopedia 

 D'Histoire Naturelle par le Dr. Chenu (the only authoi-ities at hand to refer 

 to), any mention of erippus occurring in America, and perhaps Mr. French 

 may have been led to note its being common in America from having 

 compared a specimen of the New South Wales species with a Californian 

 specimen, similar to that in the Canterbury Museum, and failed, as I have, to 

 discover any difierence between them. 



Assuming that the New South Wales and American specimens are distinct 

 species, I prefer to treat the New Zealand species as identical with that of 

 New South Wales, and adopt the specific name of herenice instead of eri])pus — 

 the Fabrician specific name erippus having given place to that of herenice, 

 Cramer. (See Butler's Cat. Diur. Lep., p. 4.) 



From Dr. Hector I have also received a specimen of this butterfly, taken 

 last summer at Hokitika, where he saw it in great abundance ; and, since the 

 capture of the first, Mr. Meinertzhagen has taken several more specimens at 

 Waimarama, and to him I am indebted for the pains he has taken in obtaining 

 for me much valuable information respecting the insect. 



