
A NEW RACE or TISIPHONE ABEONA DONOVAN 
(LEPIDOPTERA RHOPALOCERA) rrom SOUTH AUSTRALIA 
By NORMAN B, TINDALF, B.8c,, ErxHno.oaist, S.A. Museum. 
Plate xix, 
THE Satyrid Tisiphone abeona Don. 1805 illustrates more than most Australian 
butterflies the interesting phenomenon of ihe formation of a whole series of 
geographical races within the limits of a continental area. Waterhouse (1922, 
1923, 1928) demonstrated by yvenetie 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 vekomene of the species. Such isolating areas are notable either for the 
unsuitability of the climate, the absence of native sword grasses (Gahnia 
psittacorwm, G. aspera and @, microstachya), the characteristic foodplants of the 
butterfly, or for unsuitable climate combined with lack of foodplants. 
Hitherto known races are: 
Tisiphone abeona rawnsleyi Miskin, 1876. South Queensland at Maroochy, 
Mooloolah and Caloundra, 
Tisiphone abeona morrisi Waterhouse, 1914. North-eastern New South Wales 
between the Macleay and Tweed Rivers. 
Tisiphone abeona reyalis Waterhouse, 1928. New South Wales, at Barrington 
Tops and the Dorrigo Platean at elevations up to 4,000 feet. 
Tisiphone abeona joanna (Butler, 1866). New South Wales, within a radins of 
approximately 15 miles of Port Maeqnaric, 
Tisiphone abeona aurelia Waterhouse, 1915. New South Wales, between Port 
Stephens and Camden Haven. 
Tisiphone abeanm abeant (Donovan, 1805). New South Wales coastal districts 
at Neweastle, Ourimbah, Sydney and Tawarra; also in the Blue Mountains, 
Tistphone abeona albifascia. Waterhouse, 1904. South-eastern New South Wales 
from Narooma to Wilson Promontory, and eastern Victoria at Ferntree Gully, 
Wandin, Healesville, Mt. Macedon and Lorne, 
There is one other Tisiphone, T. helena Ollitf, 1888, which lives in the Cairns 
district of north Queensland at altitudes about 1,200 feet, on Mt. Bellenden-Ker, 
and at Herberton and Karunda, 1. helena, although generally listed as a separate 
species, seems to belong to the polytypie T. abeona. 
