
TINDALE—TISIPHONE FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA 617 
and less favourable phase. Asa result of this progressive change, Tisiphone abeona 
was first able to colonize a broad area from eastern Victoria to South Australia, 
and then with the onset of a decline in these favourable conditions, the southern 
colony of Tistphone became divided. This division took place a sufficiently long 
time ago to have permitted the development of recognizable differences of apparent 
subspecifie status. In view of the relatively brief period likely to be involved 
(only portion of time between Wiirm III and the present at a maximum), it is 
suggested that 7. a. abeona may be a relatively unstable or rapidly mutating form, 
as well as one very sensitive to climatie changes. 
The South East of this State, wet and humid though it seems by South 
Australian standards, might have been considered generally too inhospitable a 
locality for a member of such a sensitive genus as T%siphone, The area within the 
crater or subsidence area about Lake Edward appears to constitute a relict niche 
which has preserved traces of a ‘‘wet’’ flora and fauna once more widely spread 
in the South East. The very presence of this butterfly is an argument in support 
of an immediately prior period of high humidity rather than a drier one. In fact, 
if dry conditions had been present, it is likely the species would have become 
extinet. The race also oceurs on the Glenelg River at Dartmoor, where similar 
conditions of moisture and relatively high humidity occur in pockets within the 
meandering valley. 
REFERENCES CITED. 
Waterhouse, G. A. and Lyell, G. (1914) : Butterflies of Australia, Sydney. 
Waterhouse, G. A. (1922) : Proc. Linn, Soc. N.S.W., Sydney, 47, pp. 9-17, pl. i-iii. 
Waterhouse, G. A. (1923) : Proc. Linn, Soc. N.S.W., Sydney, 48, pp. 13-16, pl. i-il. 
