Publ. 15. III. 1915. 
SYNTOMIDAE; GENERAL TOPICS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
33 
3. Family: Syntomidae. 
Referring to the comments published in Vol. II (p. 37—-38) an Vol. X (p. 61—62) upon this rather 
homogeneous family of butterflies, I remind the reader of the historical note appended there on the development 
of our knowledge of the Syntomid forms. To the statement made there, according to which in 1892 (Kirby’s 
Catalogue) little more than 700 Syntomid forms were known, which number, however, went up already in 
1898 (Hampson) — six years hereafter -— to 1200 and in 1912 (at the publication of the Indian part of our work) 
to more than 1400, we may now add that we know to-day already more than 2000 Syntomidae, of which more 
than 1800 pertain solely to the American fauna. 
If we consider that altogether only 4 species of this family of butterflies are living in Europe, but that 
almost at no place of Europe there occur more than 2 Syntomidae or 3 at most, and that they are absent alto¬ 
gether in many districts -— in contrast with the American abundance —, the chief characteristic of the fauna 
of the warmer parts of America thus becomes evident to us. I say ,,warmer“, for in the temperate part of the 
western hemisphere we do not notice any abundance of species nor of specimens of Syntomidae. At another 
occasion we have already remarked that almost the whole of the great number of Syntomidae in America is 
massed together in the tropical part of this continent. In South and Central Mexico it occurs yet in numbers, 
but to the north they decrease rapidly and, except Florida and the southernmost United States, we only meet 
with 3 more common forms in the northern part of America, Scepsis fulvicollis (26 a), Lycornorpha pholus (26 d), 
and Ctenucha virginica (26 g), all of which exhibit dark colours. In South America the number of Syntomidae 
decreases just as rapidly in the polar direction: in South Brazil they are still numerous and in some genera, 
such as Antichloris, Ctenucha etc. they still remind us of the abundance of species of the palearctic Zygaenidae, 
but near Buenos Ayres they have already dwindled away to quite few, mostly not common species, in order 
to disappear completely in Southern Argentina. 
The otherwise homogeneous family of the Syntomidae still offers a greater variety in the exterior by 
an extremely detailed mimicry according to most various models, which has also led to divergent secondary 
modifications. Already when commenting upon the palearctic Syntomidae we have hinted at these multifarious 
imitations. Among the insects serving them as models the relatives of the genus Zygaena were the best protected, 
since these butterflies are in fact attacked by no other enemy of insects except by spiders *). Furthermore 
several extremely spinous, very aculeate Hymenoptera are favourite models which are shunned with evident 
dislike even by large animals. We consequently have a zygaeniform group also in the palearctic Syntomidae : 
the S. phegea- group having Zyg. ephialtes-iorms as their models; and secondly the Synt. germanus- group imita¬ 
ting yellow-curled wasps. In almost the very same way as the yellow-curled wasps (which are by far superior 
in number in the palearctic district) recede behind the black and blue Crabronidae in the American Tropics, 
we also find, on glancing over our tables 10—26, that the yellow-banded species are by far inferior in number 
to the dark-blue, black, or metal-lustrous species. 
It is difficult to understand the attempts made again and again just in the Syntomidae to contest the 
serviceableness of such masking. The objection that the disguisings are able to deceive mankind living outside 
of nature, but by no means an animal living on insects, is entirely wrong and has been so often disproved by 
experiments that one can hardly understand how it is possible to revert to it again and again. Not only reptils 
are deceived and shrink back from them, because they are without the intelligence necessary to conceive the 
deception, but also insectivorous monkeys not disdaining insectile food, consequently the most intelligent 
vertebrates, treated an Aegeria apiformis I offered them alive, as a wasp **), and they would undoubtedly 
have treated in exactly the same way a just as well masked Syntomidae. Even the savage thinks that the wasp¬ 
like butterflies are able to sting, and children in Ceylon, as well as young coloured natives in Brazil are just as 
much afraid of the wasp-butterflies as of the wasps themselves. The objection that the differences in the be¬ 
haviour between the model and the copy may be found out by observation, does not hold good in unintelligent 
animals the actions of which are merely reflex actions caused by the impression obtained by means of the eye. 
*) According to statements by Mr. H. Burgeff, lizards on being fed immediately spit out Zygaena which they 
had greedily snatched up, and afterwards wiped off their mouth energetically several times. 
**) Zoologischer Anzeiger 1893, No. 427. 
