1895.] L. de Niceville & Dr. L. Martin — Butterflies of Sumatra. 367 



species to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, which was captured on the 

 19th April, 1889, by Mr. C. White, the chief officer on board the Penin- 

 sular and Oriental S. S. " Ravenna " in the Straits of Malacca (which is 

 at the point where the butterfly was caught only a few miles broad), not 

 far off the island of Palo Jara between Penang and Singapore. It is there- 

 fore not at all improbable that the butterfly flew off from either the 

 adjacent island of Sumatra or from the Asiatic mainland. I have for 

 some years past been looking forward to its capture in India proper, 

 and I think it cannot be long hence before we have evidence of its hav- 

 ing established itself on this continent. 



P.S- — Since the above was in type, I have lighted on an article in 

 " The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation," vol. v, p. 1 

 (1894), by Dr. P. J. Buckell, entitled " Danais archippus, Anosia 

 plexippus, or What," in which he discusses the question of the correct 

 name by which " The Wanderer " should be known, and arrives at the 

 following- conclusions : — 



" 1. — The balance of argument is against the claim that the Ameri- 

 can insect is the plexippus of Linnaeus. 



2. — The earliest name given to that species was erippus, Cramer, 

 and, if the ' law of priority ' is to be pedantically adhered to, this is the 

 trivial name that must be adopted. 



3. — The Fabrician name, archippus, is that by which the species 

 has been most widely known, and as changes in accustomed nomencla- 

 ture are to be deprecated, and as, moreover, erippus, Cramer, is a 

 varietal form found in Brazil, archippus should be retained as the trival 

 name of the species, and erippus used as the name of the variety." 



As will be seen above, I am unable to follow Dr. Buckell in 

 his conclusions, priority of nomenclature must in all cases be strictly 

 maintained. 



9. Danais (Limnas) chrysippus, Linnseus. 



Snellen. Hagen. Moore. Pound only in the alluvial plain, all (he 

 year round, but always very local, and restricted to spots where its food- 

 plant, species of Galotropis and Asclepias, are found in abundance. There, 

 under a concatination of favourable circumstances, an immense increase 

 of the species, and thousands of specimens, appear. When an over 

 population of this nature occurs, all the food-plants are entirely 

 eaten up by the caterpillars, food gets scarce, and the few butterflies 

 which reach maturity are very small. It takes a long time to recover, 

 and not a single specimen may be seen for a year. 



Aberration alcippus, Cramer ( = alcippoides, Moore). Hagen as var. 

 alcippoides. Semper as alcippus from a small island near Sumatra 



