A NEW RACE OF TISIPHONE ABEONA DONOVAN 
(LEPIDOPTERA RHOPALOCERA) FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA 
By NORMAN B. TINDALE, B. SC., ETHNOLOGIST, S. A. MUSEUM 
Summary 
The Satyrid Tisiphone abeona Don. 1805 illustrates more than most Australian 
butterflies the interesting phenomenon of the formation of a whole series of 
geographical races within the limits of a continental area. Waterhouse (1922, 1923, 
1928) demonstrated by genetic studies and by hybridization experiments, that several 
forms of this butterfly, once thought to belong to more than one species, were all 
races of a single polytypic species. Each of the races is geographically isolated from 
the next by a wide or narrow zone of country outside the oekomene of the species. 
Such isolating areas are notable either for the unsuitability of the climate, the absence 
of native sword grasses (Gahnia psittacorum, G. aspera and G. microstachya), the 
characteristic foodplants of the butterfly, or for unsuitable climate combined with lack 
of foodplants. 
