AN ANALYSIS OF THE EURASIAN AND 



AUSTRALIAN NEPTINI 



(LEPIDOPTERA : NYMPHALIDAE) 



By J. N. ELIOT 



CONTENTS 



Synopsis ....... 



Introduction ...... 



I Iisiokv and Status of Genera 

 Origin and Distribution of Neptini 



< uaphical Variation and Polymorphism . 



Seasonal Variation ..... 



Mimicry ........ 



Acknowledgements ..... 



K i. \s to the Genera and Species . 

 Annotated List of the Species and Subspecies 

 List of New Names ..... 



References ....... 



Index ........ 



SYNOPSIS 



3 

 3 

 4 

 7 

 ii 



14 

 15 



15 



15 



25 



131 



133 



148 



The Eurasian and Australian Neptini are revised and keys to the genera and species are 

 provided. Two new species and 47 new subspecies are described. 



INTRODUCTION 



The tribe has usually been referred to in the past as Neptidi or Neptidini ; I follow 

 Fox (1965 : 247) in calling it Neptini, on the grounds that Neptis is a Latin noun. 



More than 500 names of Eurasian and Australian Neptini have been published. 

 Many of these have been attached by different authors first to one species and then 

 to another in a most haphazard manner, mainly due to a failure to investigate the 

 male genitalia. The only attempts to review the Eurasian and Australian species 

 as a whole have been those of Fruhstorfer (1908 and 1913 {in Seitz)), who used 

 only external characters, including venation, and whose arrangement contains 

 many faults. The African species of Neptis were analysed on the basis of the male 

 genitalia by Eltringham (1922). I consider that the male genitalia afford the 

 most reliable characters for a systematic arrangement, and they have been used 

 primarily for the present analysis. I am more fortunate than Eltringham in 

 finding that in my chosen area differences of genitalia can usually be correlated 

 with external differences, so that it has been possible to write keys relying mainly 

 on the latter. 



