Additions: DANAIDAE. By Dr. A. Seitz. 1027 



3rd Subfamily: Ithomiinae. 



The Ithomiinae in Tropical America are entirely subject to the laws governing all the groups of 

 insects which do not like to fly or are bad flyers in this woody region: almost every greater part of a 

 forest, the river-basin of almost every little river has a special mode of marking from which the members 

 fljTng there and taken at exactly the same locality differ to a remarkably little extent. One may often travel 

 for miles and miles without finding a certain species of Ithomia or Pteronyniia, which may then be suddenly 

 swarmmg in a surprisingly great number of specimens at an entirely circumscript place. Thus I once saw 

 on a bush only 2 m high near Santos more than 20 specimens of Melinaea paraiya of which I had before 

 not discovered a single specimen in spite of having been roaming about for many days. Scarcely any spe- 

 cimen of this species flew away from the bush, mitil all of them were captured; .such a behaviour is only 

 met with in well-protected lepidoptera crowded together on confined habitats (in Europe in the genus Zy- 

 gaena). The incredible laziness of these diurnal lepidoptera from the subfamily of the Ithomiinae may be con- 

 cluded from a remark of Fereeiea d'Almeida in his very nice and biologically most interesting book: 

 „fi tudes sur les Lepidopteres du Bresil" (Melanges lepidopterologiques) 

 on p. 71, according to which the imagines resting on the blossoms or tips of the branches may be simply 

 taken away with one's fingers; an observation which I can substantiate for a great number of species of the 

 group. A necessary consequence of this character is the so-called formation of colonies or subordinate races, 

 as by the very rapidly succeeding generations (each generation mostly does not need more than a month for 

 its development) a certam pattern of marking is quickly fixed at a habitat to such a degree that even 

 minute deviations from it number among the very greatest rarities. We may then find at the next habitat 

 of the species a somewhat different colouring, though it shows here the same constancy as the former at the 

 other habitat. I have considered it incorrect to denominate these mostly insignificant though constant de- 

 viations, as it has been done by others in other cases (such as in the Erycinidae). This method if bemg 

 consistently performed, would have to increase to an infinite amount, and in composing this chapter on 

 p. 116 to 165 the compiler was also led to confine the denomination to notoriously zoographical races and 

 to avoid the denomination of subordinate races. The compiler has carried this out very meritoriously, and 

 it seems that up to this day this excellent example has also prevented later describers to corrupt his succinct 

 delineations by hair-splitting processes. May this chapter be also in future exempt from the denomination 

 of transitory forms effacing the exact boundaries, without checking the admittance of really maintainable 

 races and species with the impending opening up of South America *). 



Mechanitis lysimnia F. (34 b). Larva on Solanum arrebenta; anteriorly very much narrowed with 

 a small head; adult larva 31 mm long, of a bright yellow, across the dorsum 2 greyish-blue or grepsh -green 

 longitudinal bands; head black. 



Pseudoscada. For the form Ps. adasa Hew. p. p. (41 c) Ferreira d'Almeida introduces the name 

 diversivoca and places the species to Dismeiiitis. — • For the other figure of adasa by Hewitson (Exot. Butt, dh-ersh-oca. 

 Vol. 4) the same author establishes the species pseudodiversivoca: smaller, the forewing more pointed, the pseudodiver- 

 demi-band and marginal band straighter ; the upper discocellular is absent, the lower more curved. Southern sh-oca. 



Brazil. 



Ceratinia euryanassa (35 b). Larva on Datura arborea, in the adult stage xip to 3 cm long, with 

 a yellowish-brown head, the body with bright transverse stripes, ventrum deep green; pupa yellowish-brown, 

 the wing-cases of a dingy white, marbled with dark, the pupa itself with numerous small dark spots* and 

 markings. Ferreira d'Almeida bases a new genus on this species: Placidula. 



For Cerat. daeta Bsd. the same author introduces the genus Mansueta. The ? lays the eggs singly 

 on Solanum argenteum. The adult larva is 23 mm long, above of a dingy greenish or bluish gxey, beneath 

 whitish, on the sides with a yellowish stripe-like colouring, across the dorsum transverse wrinkles of a deeper 

 colouring, particularly the anterior part of the larva very nuch wrinkled. 



With the newly established genus Rhadinoptera Ferr. d^Alm. its author combines a number of species 

 that were before ranged in various other genera to which they had been placed according to the neuratiou, 

 such as Ceratinia, Ithomia, Hypoleria, Heterosais, Pteronymia etc. The first form of this series is: 



Cerat. eupompe Hhn. (35 d). Larva on a Solanea; in the adult stage 25 mm, above greyish-green, on 

 both its ends whitish, with transverse wrinkles, thoracal segments spotted dark, ventrum ligther. — Pupa green 

 with small metallic spots. 



*) A similar behaviour as we have ascertained for the insularly confined habitats of the neotropical wooded districts 

 for many resident or weak-winged species of lepidoptera, occurs in mountainous species at such places where the alpine habi- 

 tats are isolated by interposed valleys impassable to the alpine inhabitants, as for instance in the Parnassiae everywhere 

 where these dwellers of mountains are. The one species P. apollo was provided with more than 100 names, more than SO 

 of them with the statement of geographically defined habitats. If the denomination is not chequed in analogous cases. 

 certain groups in South America will be loaded with a ballast of names that renders the orientation difficult instead of 

 facilitating it. 



