Genus Hypolimnas 



rows on either side of the shorter spines. It feeds on various 

 species of malvaceous plants and also on the common portulaca. 



Chrysalis. — The chrysalis is thick, 

 with the head obtusely pointed; the 

 abdominal segments adorned with a 

 double row of tubercles. The thorax 

 is convex. 



This genus, which includes a large 

 number of species, reaches its fullest 

 development in the tropics of the Old 

 World, and includes some of the most 

 beautiful, as well as the most singular, 

 forms, which mimic the protected spe- 

 cies of the Euplceinse, or milkweed but- 

 terflies, of the Indo-Malayan and Ethi- 

 opian regions. In some way one of the 

 most widely spread of these species, 

 which is found throughout the tropics 

 of Asia and Africa, has obtained lodg- 

 ment upon the soil of the New World, 

 and is occasionally found in Florida, 

 where it is by no means common. It 

 may be that it was introduced from Africa in the time of the 

 slave-trade, having been accidentally brought over by ship. That 

 this is not impossible is shown by the fact that the writer has, 

 on several occasions, obtained in the city of Pittsburgh specimens 

 of rare and beautiful tropical insects which emerged from chrysa- 

 lids that were found attached to bunches of bananas brought 

 from Honduras. 



(i) Hypolimnas misippus, Linnaeus, Plate XXI, Fig. 9, $ ; 

 Fig. 10, S (The Mimic). 



Butterfly, $ . — On the upper side the wings are velvety-black, 

 with two conspicuous white spots on the fore wing, and a larger 

 one on the middle of the hind wing, the margins of these spots 

 reflecting iridescent purple. On the under side the wings are 

 white, intricately marked with black lines, and black and red- 

 dish-ochraceous spots and shades. 



9 . — The female mimics two or three forms of an Oriental 

 milkweed butterfly, the pattern of the upper side of the wings 

 conforming to that of the variety of the protected species which 



181 



Fig. 105. — Neuration of the 

 genus Hypolimnas. 



