Publ. 18. IV. 1915. PREPONA. By H. Frunsrorrer. 561 
uncus, beg somewhat thickened and set with irregularly arranged protuberances and spines. The uncus 
itself is rather long, in its appendage to the tegumen sharply pressed in like a saddle, then it runs straight 
on to its end which is curved and bent downwards with its tip, similar to the beak of a pelican. The 
clasping-organs, harpae, join two smaller lateral cones of the tegumen and form faintly chitinized, longitudinal- 
triangular tips, being exteriorly densely set with warts and tiny short hairs, but beside more sparsely set with 
hair of different length. Below the harpae, on both sides of the tegumen-ring, a trough-shaped sella protrudes, 
which is outside provided with many small, pointed protuberances, on which the slender, somewhat curved 
penis rests. The saccus is short and obtuse. All the parts are liable to slight variations. The saddle at the 
appendage of the uncus is more or less sharply pressed in, the uncus itself more or less strongly curved. 
The lateral appendages below it are more or less strongly clubbed at their ends, and the dents and protuberances 
longer or shorter developed, and irregularly arranged. The harpae exhibit more slender or more clumsy tips, 
dorsally at the base more or less gibbous, the long hairs stronger or more sparse, sella longer or shorter. This 
variability of the single parts of the organ is not bound to one and the same form, so that it repeats itself in 
the same or nearly the same way in laértes typicus and penelope on the one hand, and in antikleia on the—_ 
other hand. — pallidior Pruhst. (111 a), the Paraguay-race of laértes bears the same relationship to the typical pallidior. 
form as eugenes diluta Fruhst. to eugenes Bates from the Amazon River, for on the under surface of the hind- 
wings we notice an obliteration of all the black spots and markings. The yellowish colouring of the anal 
angle of the forewings is also very much faded and the distal half of the hindwings is tinged in a faded grey, 
instead of the intense brownish-grey distinguishing laértes from Brazil. The ocelli are less distinct and the 
black submarginal band of the forewings is less dentate. On the upper surface, the blue discal bands are more 
profusely and deeply parted by the black ground-colour, the band itself being somewhat lighter blue. Para- 
guay, Rio Grande do Sul. — The name of /aértes Hbn., finally, is transferred to the Brazilian subspecies on 
account of different analogies of the under surface. I do not possess specimens fully corresponding with Huzs- 
NER’s figure (as depicted in WyTsMAN’s edition Table 70). But relatively large black submarginal dots of the 
forewings exhibited in the said figure make almost the impression of an aberrative, especially dark specimen. 
$3 from Brazil are relatively small with only one blue costal spot. 2? remarkably large, with one large, distinct, 
and two effaced transcellular spots, distal part of both the wings beneath intensely grey with few ochreous 
patches. Not of very frequent occurrence from Espiritu Santo to Theresopolis in Santa Catharina, while speci- 
mens from Rio Grande do Sul approximate already pallidior from Paraguay. 
P. omphale. A wonderful form which we are not justified in calling a species, since in P. laértes 
penelope Fruhst. there occur already specimens with traces of a black, proximal blue reflection on the blue median 
area of the forewings. On the other hand, the uncommonly pointed wing-contour and the exclusive occurrence 
of omphale on the Antilles and in Honduras, where /aértes does not occur, argue in favour of a certain indepen- 
dence. In any case omphale — and even if it were only a form — has, for nearly 125 years, been misconceived 
by us. Cramer has figured it wonderfully, though only its under surface, adding a short, but fully suffi- 
cient diagnose running thus: ,,Over the black ground of the wings there is yet a dark violet reflection.‘ Never- 
theless he denominated it in 1775 as demophon, which name was already preoccupied by LINNE in 1764. 
HUEBNER who, in 1816, attempted a revision of Prepona in his list of noted butterflies, was quite right in deno- 
minating CRAMER’s figure as omphale. In 1823 when Gopart published his celebrated Encyclopedia, HuEBNER’s 
denomination was overlooked, and Goparr introduced for omphale Hbn., the new name of demodice. This 
denomination grew to be popular on Lucas figuring successfully the upper surface in his ,,Lepidoptéres exoti- 
ques** in 1835, to which BorspuvaL supplied another second figure of the under surface. Kirpy in his Cata- 
logue, added the species as a synonym to laértes Hbn., from which STauDINGER, supplying again a figure, discon- 
nected it, denominating it demodice and taking gnorima Bates to be an aberration of it. That is the reason why 
omphale is labelled as gnorima in all the collections. From laértes with which Kirspy unites it, omphale differs 
above by the reddish instead of yellow scent-turts of the hindwings *). The blue median band, especially of 
the 2, runs more rectilinearly as well as the black streaks secluding the cellule distally on the under surface 
of the hindwings and being generally more strongly prominent. Mr. Micuant reports in a letter addressed to 
me about the habits: ,,.On September 28th 1904, I found, near Juanjui on the Upper Huallaga, at a place 
with an especially delicious or flavoured odour, crowded together into a heap, far more than 30 Prepona of 
all the species occurring there, and — most amazingly — in the midst of them in the thickest scuffle there 
was an Agrias beatifica (resp. beata). The Prepona were so voracious in their feast, that I could quite easily 
pick out first the Agrias with my fingers, then I chose the best Prepona, at first 2 specimens of omphale, some 
amphimachus, 3 dexamenus. Only after I had thus grasped about 10 of the best with my fingers, some of 
the others began to fly away.‘ The most characteristic mark of the species, the wonderful violet reflection 
*) The clasping-organs differ but quite slightly from P. laérles by a ventrally somewhat more convex valve. Most 
interesting is a chitinous thickening near the base of the valve likewise occurring in Agrias claudina. 
Vv 71 
