470 HYPOLIMNAS; HISTORIS. By Dr. A. Serrz. 
When I started the butterflies up by beating and they flew round the bush before settling again, it was scarcely 
possible to distinguish pelews in flight from the swarm of Colaenis etc. 
eleuchea. M. eleuchea Hbn. (= pellenis Godt.) (96 e). Pretty similar to the preceding, but darker fox-red, more 
misippus. 
orion. 
strongly marked with black, and abundantly distinct in the shape of the forewing, which is much shorter 
and has a short tooth below the apex. From the south of the United States (Texas, Florida) and the Antilles; 
not rare on Cuba. 
E. Group: Hypolimnadidi. 
If the Hypolimnadids are not reckoned directly to the Vanessidi, but are separated from Anartia and Victorina, which 
nearly approach the Vanessids, they have scarcely to be considered in the American fauna, as their sole representative has 
certainly been accidentally introduced. We therefore place it here by itself. 
21. Genus: Hypolimnas Hon. 
The only species found in America is H. misippus, which is here rare, but in Africa and South Asia 
quite common and mimetically adapted to the Danaids occurring there. Hence it: is dealt with fully elsewhere 
(vol. IX, p. 545, and vol. XIII, p. 212) and, as it has also reached the Palearctic Region in Syria, it is figured 
in the first part of this work. 
H. misippus L. (vol.I, pl. 60c). The reader is here referred to what has been said in vol. I, p. 195, vol. IX, 
p. 547, and vol. XIII, p. 213. g¢ black with white discal area with blue reflection on both wings; the 9-form found 
in America is the one figured in vol. I, pl. 60 c, as the typical 9-form of misippus, diocippus Cr., a mimic of 
Danais chrysippus. The butterfly is still rare in America and has been found in quite isolated localities; thus 
in widely distant parts of North America (New York-Florida), on the Antilles and in northern South America. 
No doubt pupae have been repeatedly imported, and as the larva lives on field-produce (Batatae) and the species 
runs through the whole cycle from egg to imago in only some 4—5 weeks, it has succeeded in gaining a firm 
foothold. The flight of H. misippus is quite unlike that of other Nymphalids, which often have a darting or 
sailing motion, on the contrary it resembles the irregular flight of the Danaids, which the female mimics, 
just as the other mimetic Hypolimnas that of Buploea. 
F. Group: Gynaeciidae. 
This group of butterflies approximates in some degree to the Vanessidi and at the same time to the nearly allied Hy- 
polimnadidi. As far as they are known the larvae are strongly spined, the pupae have points on the head and often also pe- 
culiar teeth on the dorsum, the butterflies are most conspicuous by the peculiar scheme of markings on the under surface, 
where this is not softened into a leaf-like pattern. There are scarcely a dozen forms, which are divided into 6 genera, all con- 
fined to America, there often common and sometimes so general that they may be described as characteristic butterflies of 
a South American land-scape. Sometimes butterflies of this group are seen flying along at great elevations, all in the same 
direction, apparently migrating. 
22. Genus: Historis Hon. 
To this genus is assigned a large butterfly, common in almost the whole of South America, which about 
corresponds with Doleschallia of the Old World. The sole species is so characteristic that a description 
is almost superfluous. 
H. orion F. (= danae Cr.) (104e). Very large, forewing produced at the apex and hindwing at the 
anal part. Above black-brown with orange disc to the forewing, this orange colour beyond the cell reaching 
nearly to the distal margin, before the apex of the forewing a white costal spot, the hindwing light-margined. 
Under surface leaf-like. From the south of Florida, where, however, it is probably only an immigrant, 
the species is distributed over the West Indies and Mexico through Central and South America as far as Argen- 
tina and it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. —_ The larva is thick and firm, with short bran- 
ched spines and two short spinose clubs on the head, yellow-brownish to greenish with dark brown transverse 
markings on the segments. The pupa is laterally much flattened with sharp dorsal ridge, likewise yellow- 
brownish to wood-coloured, and has two long horns on the head. The butterfly does not visit flowers, but 
drinks at wet places on the road and especially at sugar, sap and fruit, where it rests head downwards, always 
with the wings closed, but when in danger dashes away with very powerful, though not very elegant flight 
a 
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