Pubh 23. XL 1916. HELICOPTS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 633 



spots in the margin of the hindwing. This form flies, almost -wdthout exhibiting any deviations, from Panama 



and Guiana to Ecuador. The ^ of it is an animal with a small orange-red subapical spot as Ls seen from our 



figiu-e (according to a Surinam-specimen). — In magnarea jonn. nov. ' (\22i) the subapical spot in both sexes mugnarea. 



is about three times as large ,and in the $ the yellow spots in the margin of the hindwing flow^ together into 



a band; from the Amazon (Pebas, Humayta) to Bolivia. — amithrata form. nov. (122 i) has the forewings like annihrata. 



the typical form, but the row of spots in the margin of the hindwing is absent or only indicated; Peru. — In 



chrysQHiela Btlr. (122 h, i) the ^ has above no subapical spot at all, while the $ has in the distal part of the chry.wmela. 



forewing instead of the yellow oval, a white macular band reaching down as far as the anal angle. Central 



America, Colombia as far as Ecuador. • — vitellia ah nov. (122 i) are ^^ with yellow instead of dajk orange-red vHellia. 



ground-colour; from Costa Rica. All these forms seem not to be bound to a certain country; at any rate, 



however, the single forms, as far as they are not individual aberrations, strictly separated according to the 



habitats. The butterflies are, wherever they occur, not rare and like to be near the water, like the follo-«-ing 



genus, too. 



3. Genus: Helicopis F. 



Whereas the MetJionella had conic teeth at the ends of the veins of the hindwings, we find in the Heli- 

 copis sabre-shaped tails of a length of up to a centimetre. Another characteristic for the members of this genus 

 are metallic drops on the under surface of the hindwings, which may be of a variable lustre, so that they appear 

 in a certain light golden, in another silvery. As we have already mentioned in the preface to this family, 

 these drop-like spots are plastic, like impressed gold-printing, convex towards the under sinrface, on the upper 

 surface distinguishable as shallow excavations. There are only few species, mostly replacing each other. The 

 larvae are white with a red neck-organ formed of many small cones; they are transformed into brown pupae 

 held with a belt, being provided A^dth fluffy hairs like the larvae and bearing likemse the scarlet organ in the 

 neck. The butterflies mostly rest near the water on the under surface of leaves, are easily knocked off, fly, 

 however, very lazily and soon settle down again, so that they are easily taken. The children of the natives are 

 sometimes seen playing vnth them, and the Indians have given them a special name signifying as much as 

 ,, small animals of love", a peculiar correspondence of denomination with Linnb who named the first Helicopis 

 known ,,cupido". The butterflies are local, but common at their fljdng-places ; only in the confines, as for instance 

 South Brazil, they grow rare. » 



H. cupido L. (124 a). Black, forewings with a large light-yellow discal spot, hindwings with a dirty cupido. 

 yellow basal part. In the $ the yellow colour is preponderant, only the distal margin of the forewing is black-, 

 that of the hind\\dng brown. Colombian $$ often exhibit in the apical part of the hindwing more a nut-brown 

 darkening; in $$ from Sao Paulo de 01iven9a (Upper Amazon), the distal part of the hindwing is almost entirely 

 black as in the (J. Amazon- $$ (Para, Itaituba) often have an oblique stripe above the cell-end; in specimens 

 from there, the cell of the forewing and the basal part below it are of a bright orange-yellow, and as they 

 have hereby quite a different appearance, I denominate them erotica form. nov. (124 a). — trinitatls form, erotica, 

 nov. (124 a) are specimens from the Island of Trinidad in which the border of the fore-\iing is only narrow and 

 of a dull dark tinge, but where the brown colouring is continued as far as below the cell and where a dull 

 oblique shade, coming from the costa, confines the cell. In (J (J from Trmidad this marking is constant, while 

 among the 2$ there occur beside the figiared butterflies also such that are nearly quite bone-white and without 

 markings, which were also found in other places in South America. There they may occm' in superior numbers, 

 so that one might be inclined to denote them as a subspecies (Geote). Nearly quite white specimens have 

 been denominated ab. lindeni Grt. (124 b as linderi). — divergens subsp. nov. (124 b) is a very large race which ^'^^^^'J^'j, 

 almost entirely lacks the orange-yellow basal spot of the forewings beneath, whereas the ground of the hind- 

 wings is golden brown; from Humayta on the Rio Madeira. Most peculiar are specimens that are above without 

 markings, like lindeni, beneath, however, on the forewing black and orange spotted. The figm-ed specimen 

 (in the Tring Museum without the habitat being mentioned) resembles beneath a typical cupido except the 

 missing dark margin of the forewing, it is above purely bone-white and has only at the base of the forewing 

 a slight ochreous tinge. I call the strange animal ab. stupenda ah. nov. (124 b). — The larva is white of a silky stupenda. 

 gloss, with delicately grey shadowy stripes on the sides of the back and above the stigmata. The hau-s are 

 also fine white, and behind the head as well as at the 12 th segment there are red pads being undoubtedly 

 warning-organs. The pupa, being of a light yellowish-brownish or greenish-brownish ground-colom', exhibits 

 a white fl\iff and the bright scarlet at the end of the head. The range of the whole species comprises the eastern 

 part of South America and extends from Trinidad and the northern coast of South America as far as South 

 Brazil where, however, the butterfly grows extremely rare. In Espiritu Santo it is found yet now and then, 

 in Santos I did not capture it, nor did v. Bonninghausen near Rio. 



H. endymion Cr. (= selene Fldr.) (124 b, c). Forewings bone-white, with fine black margins, in the endymion. 



(J with a broad rust-brown base. Hindvraigs also bone-white, at the distal marginal part broad black. Beneath, 



the base of the wings is orange and terminates with 2, sometimes contiguous black transverse spots, another 



such a spot extends, behind the cell-end, from the costa into the wing. In the $ the basal browai above is 



V 80 



