X. president's address. 



on edther side of Port Maequaxie to prevent an occasional specimen of either 

 the southern or northern form entering the area. 



The distribution of Tisiphone in Eastern Australia. 



The Genus Tisiphone HUbner. 



I have already shown (Australian Zoologist, i., pt. 1, 1914) that Tisiphone 

 Hiibner is the generic name that must be applied to these butterflies, which 

 have been placed by various authors at different times under Enodia, Xenica or 

 Epinephile. The genus is confined to the Coast and the Main Dividing Range 

 of Eastern and South-eastern Australia. In my opinion it consists of two 

 species only — T. helena from an altitude of 1000 ft. and over in the Cairns Dis- 

 trict, Queensland and T. abeona which extends, with sis subspecies, from Southern 

 Queensland into Victoria. No collections have yet been made in the Main 

 Divide between Cairns and Eockhajupton and I anticipate that further species 

 or subspecies wll yet be discovered to link up the dark abeona with the paler 

 coloured helena. In order that the results of my experiments may be understood 

 it is necessary here to give a brief review of the subspecies of Tisiphone abeona 

 and their distribution. The map (Plate i.) shows the various areas in which the 

 subspecies of T. abeona have been taken. The food plants of the genus are 

 various species of Gahnia, commonly called 8word grass or cutty grass. 



T. abeona albifascia Waterhouse. (Plate ii., fig. 816.) 



This is the race that occurs in Victoria and on the coast in the south of 

 New South Wales; it differs only in degree from the typical form found near 

 Sydney, having broader and (especially in the female) paler orange markings 

 on the forewing-s above and much broader white markings beneath. We might 

 expect that this foi-m of a butterfly that ranges into Queensland would only 

 occur near sealevel ,in Victoria, but this is not the case, for, though it has been 

 taken at Lome and Wilson's Promontory, it is also found at an elevation of 2300 

 feet at Mt. Maoedon. It has not been recorded from the Victorian Alps, nor 

 from Mt. Kosciusko, and must certainly be absent from the latter locality for I 

 have myself seai'ched for it there in the months of December, Januai-y, February 

 and March. This race grades into the typical race and it is not possible to draw 

 the exact line of separation between the two. I consider ail my specimens from 

 Eden to belong to albifascia whilst all those from Ulladulla belong to typical 

 abeona. 



T. abeona abeona Donovan. (Plate ii., fig. 815.) 



The type locality of this butterfly must have been near Sydney for, though 

 only described in 1805, Donovan remarks tliat it was not vei-y unfrequently 

 received amongst other insects from the vicinity of Port Jackson and that a 

 painting of it existed amongst the drawings of William -Tones of Chelsea when 

 Fabricius visited England prior to 1793. It is strange that Fabricius omitted 

 to describe this handsome species when desciibing others from Jones' drawings. 

 This form is veiy common on the coast from Ulladulla to Newcastle and also 

 occurs in the Blue Mts. as far as Mt. Victoria, but is absent from the eoastal 

 plain between Penrith and Sydney. It is not subject to any gTeat variation 

 though I have a few interesting abeiTations amongst many hundreds of specimens 

 that have passed through my hands. 



