622 ERYCINIDAE; LIBYTHEA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 



Accoz'ding to recent observations, the Erycinid larvae indeed also possess a guard of ants consisting 

 sometimes of larger troops of minute ants, sometimes of solitarily working large species. Guppy has ascer- 

 tained that the latter offer strong resistance if one wants to separate them from their protege ; they are, there- 

 fore, probably able to effectively defend their larvae against enemies. 



The pupae offer a very great variety. Some are green, small, clinging closely to the leaf like the Lycaenids 

 which the EryciniTiae also siu-ely approximate *) ; but there are also known numerous variegated, spotted pupae, 

 such as of the genera Hades, Stalachtis, Lym?ias. Others resemble a small piece of wood [Nymphidium molpe, 

 Metacharis eryihromelas) and are occasionally also provided with splinter-like protuberances {Ancyluris). The 

 attachment is different, the Libytheinae, Stalachtis and others appearing suspended freely by the cremaster, 

 whereas others stand out horizontally and others again are held by a belt of spun silk. Bates had even once 

 tried to systematize the ways in which the pupa is hung up, but he desisted from it on finding that evidently 

 allied groups had different modes of suspension. We actually also know that for instance the green pupa of 

 Nymphidium caricae is held by a belt, while the pupa of Emesis mandana which approximates it, is suspended 

 freely. Most of the pupae are probablj^ fixed singly and well hidden; but the pupa of Hades noctula is gregarious 

 (on one leaf 15 specimens) which may signify the completement of a mimicry, since the doubles of Hades noctula 

 (Morpheis, EucJieira) likewise live in clusters of nests. Though bright colours are on the whole rare in freely 

 living pupae, yet they occur in the Erycinidae, as for instance in Helicopis the pupa of which exhibits scarlet 

 excrescences at the anterior and posterior ends. 



The butterflies seem to become transformed chiefly in the early hours of the morning, it was at least 

 early when I met single specimens with still soft wings on their first flight. Fassl saw several species flying 

 to the water and ot the bait quite early in the morning, but they did not appear anymore the whole day. We 

 have already mentioned the short swarming flights performed by many species in the sunshine. The Nymphi- 

 dium seem to wait until the evening-twilight before they come out from their hidingplace. The life of the butter- 

 flies seems to be short, though it is bound to a certain season only where — in Argentina and North America — ■ 

 a cold season interrupts the life of the insects altogether. 



The division into genera, having been founded by Westwood, was in the very beginning accompanied by 

 a rather good result, since this author was anyhow uncommonly skillful in systematizing insects of all classes 

 by the right appreciation of the rougher anatomical peculiarities and by the proper consideration of the habitus 

 and even of the scheme of colouring. Feldee who founded different new genera has also worked with such 

 an acuteness that the system created by these two systematizers can still be applied to-day with insignificant 

 alterations. Bates who in 1865 established, as the first specialistic work on the Erycinidae, a catalogue of this 

 family, after various other attempts, reverted to the veins of the wings as being the most serviceable principle 

 of division. Later on, Salvin and Godman undertook a careful examination of the genitals in the ^JcJ of most 

 of the genera, of which detailed descriptions were published in the Biologia Centr. -Americana. They result, 

 however, in a so complicated structure and in a so sonfused formation of the single organs that they can hardly 

 offer any clue in certain special questions. A new list was brought by Kirby's Catalogue in which the number 

 of the known forms (630 M'ith Bates) increased to more than 900. This was in 1877; then a greatly com- 

 pleted catalogue appeared by Levi W. Mengel editing a very much increased bibliography. He does not set 

 up new genera nor — what is still more appreciable — any new forms, but he recommends a reduction, remar- 

 king quite right that there are evidently too many genera, quite an extraordinary number of them being based 

 on only 1 or 2 species. Since that time parts of the family — being considered as special families ■ — have been 

 catalogized in Wytsman's ,, Genera Insectorum", such as the ,,Libytheidae" by A. Pagensteghee and the 

 „Riodinidae" by H. Stichel. 



A. Subfamily: Libytheinae. 



We refer to what has been said in Vol. I, p. 251, Vol. IX, p. 772, and Vol. XII, p. 293, and only 

 remark that there are only 1 or 2 American species at most, against 4 or 5 Indo-Australian and 4 Africa 

 species. 



1. Genus: r^ibythea F. 



The African Libythea belonging to the group of Dichora, the American forms belonging to the subgenus 

 of Hypatus Hbn. have been separated from the palaearctic and Indo-Australian forms. The Hypatus differ 

 from the typical Libythea by the antennae being provided with a distinctly defined club, from the Dichora 

 by the much longer palpi. All of the most variably coloured American forms have been regarded as belonging 

 to one species. Its range extends almost over the whole continent from Canada to Argentina. 



*) As a transi'ioii the Indian genus Ciiretis is considered exMbitmg not only as a butterfly anatomical resemblances 

 with, the Erycinidae, but being comparable with this family also in the larval form, especially by the strange fan-organ at the 

 posterior end, which it spreads out on being disturbed and puts in a quick whirling motion. 



