4 
Psyche 
[Vol. 91 
In the present paper, all illustrated reports are reviewed to see 
whether it is possible to distinguish natural species groups within the 
genus Adelpha. 
Oviposition 
Judging from the few scattered reports (Table 1) of oviposition in 
the Limenitidini, eggs are laid singly and are usually placed at the 
tips of leaves. While many accounts do not specify whether 
placement is on the upper or lower surface, the majority that do 
specify, report upper surface oviposition. 
Adelpha iphicla females alight upon a leaf and walk backwards 
while searching for the desired oviposition site with the tip of the 
abdomen; the egg is then placed and the butterfly takes flight before 
her next oviposition, which may be on the same leaf. In the case of 
lower surface oviposition, the female merely bends her abdomen 
around the edge of the leaf and touches its tip to the leaf. 
Among the six species of Adelpha whose eggs were collected in 
Panama, four (Table 1) place their eggs along damaged portions of 
leaves, especially on jagged points, as well as at the leaf tip, and one 
of these (A. iphicla) is about as likely to lay eggs along an intact leaf 
margin as at the tip. As well, a female A. iphicla may return to the 
same leaf several times and place as many as four eggs on one leaf, 
often on its undersurface. 
Eggs 
Eggs of the seven Adelpha species ( basiloides , cocala, cytherea, 
marcia, iphicla, melanthe, phylaca aethalia, and salmoneus) exam- 
ined by this author, were all similarly sculptured (figure 1) with pits 
(hexagonal due to packing) and seta-like projections (one from each 
junction of three pits). This same sculpture type is figured for 
Limenitis by both 2 Scudder (1889) and Eltringham (1923). 
Young’s (1974) description of the egg of Adelpha leucophthalma 
as having the seta-like projections “aris[ing] from the facets,” is 
doubtful. 
Also doubtful is the account by Comstock and Vazquez (1960) 
which describes and illustrates the egg of A. celerio as having convex 
rather then concave hexagons. Such an error is easily made, as these 
2 As Basilar chia. 
