ELYMNIAS. By H. Eruhstorfer. 
371 
genera in the oriental region. In Africa the genus is represented by Elymniopsis Fruhst. clearly distinguished 
from its asiatic relative by the elongate upper dis'cocellulars and the pointed precostal, also by the centrally 
emitted first subcostal of the hindwings. 
Subgenus Elymnias Hbn. 
Hindwing with the cell elongate and with androconia-cavity, which is wanting in Elymniopsis. 
a. Hindwing with only one hair-pencil. 
E. panthera. One of the most multiform species of the genus, and at the same time, one of the few pcmlhera. 
whose transformations from egg to imago are known to us. panthera has a general resemblance to the Eu- 
ploeas of the Crastia group. The sexes differ only in the lighter colour of the margins of the hindwing and 
of the whole under surface. The forms of this widely distributed species fall into two groups; a) those of 
the purely Macromalayan Region, b) those of the chain of islands from the Nicobars to Engano. Both 
groups contain surprisingly similar elements, yet are separated by great contrasts. Under a) are forms with 
pale bands on the wings and small ocelli, under b) forms with obsolete bands and large ocelli. Most striking 
is the contrast between the Sumatran race and that of the sumatran Satellite Islands, which all resemble the 
Nicobar form, and the more so the nearer they are to the Nicobars. Thus with the Elymnias we find repeated 
a phenomenon to which I referred under the Danaidae. Like the Danais melanippus forms of the Trabantes 
of Sumatra, so also the Elymnias gravitate towards the Nicobars, wherein (quite apart from the Satellite 
Island characters of the said species) we may conjecture the influence of an ancient land connection, which 
ran parallel to but independent of Sumatra, from the Nicobars to Engano. Genetic factors, such as climate, 
inbreeding and prolonged isolation have done the rest in increasing the influence of evolution, whereby insu¬ 
lar differences have arisen, in spite of the general similarity in the markings. — Egg spherical, milk white, a 
few black spots on the pole, and slightly flattened where it rests on the upper side of a palm leaf. The larvae 
emerge in four days, previous to which the spots unite into an irregular black patch extending to the equa¬ 
tor. On emergence the larvae are yellowish-white, after feeding they become yellow-green with black head, 
which bears two black spines inclined backwards like the antlers of a stag, from each of which a pale line runs 
along the back of the caterpillar to the blackish anal spines. After the first moult the larva is little altered, 
only that there are two other yellowish longitudinal stripes below the dorsal stripes already mentioned, and 
when examined with a magnifying glass it is seen that the whole body is covered with small yellowish pimples. 
The second and third moults make no difference in the green, slender cylindrical, flatfish, black horned larva. 
After the fourth moult the full grown larva is three centimeters in length and sap green like the palm leaves on 
which it feeds, it has two yellow dorsal stripes, running onto the anal spines, between them are two finer yellow 
median lines. Each of the first, more lateral stripes bears on the third segment a blue spot, on the fourth seg¬ 
ment a red and a blue spot and on the fifth another red spot. The entire creature is covered with delicate 
apically knobbed hairs, and shows fine transverse ridges. The head is now red-brown with a frontal marking 
like two arms of a greek cross, beneath which are two yellow protuberances. The black horns on the head 
are directed backwards and end in three points. On the temples, below the insertion of the horns is a broad 
yellow streak, in the centre of which are two small yellow cones. A long time elapses before the larva has 
settled down to pupate on the upper surface of the leaf, during which it repeatedly alters its jiosition, possi¬ 
bly to lay its web over the whole space to be covered by the pupa. The green pupa is remarkably like 
that of Elymnias nigrescens Btlr. does not hang, but rests with the ventral surface against the leaf, with which 
it is actually connected only at the anal end. The pupa has two spines on the head and a pointed, nasute, 
yellow, red bordered prominence on the thorax, the coloursapis richer than in nigrescens , all the angles are yel¬ 
low, with red streaks, and there are in addition four white, black margined spots, which are wanting in ni¬ 
grescens, as well as a few tiny black spots on the dorsal part of the ventral segments. The imagines appear 
in eight days. —- Passing from West to East we meet with the following offshoots of the main species: 
mimus Wood-Mas. Upper surface, especially distally, pale brown; ocelli on the under surface little transparent, mimus. 
Hindwings beneath with almost black-brown distal region and very large ocelli, with small blue centres. Ni- 
ceville considers this to be a mimic of Euploea camorta, a very common species in the Nicobars, which are 
the sole habitat of mimus. — dolorosa Btlr., so similar to the previous form., that Moore and Bingham simply dolorosa. 
synonymized it. Upper surface uniform black-brown. $ with much narrower pale yellow-grey submarginal 
region of the fore wings than mimus. Under surface paler, bright red-brown, distal region yellowish, ocelli 
proximally with rich blue scales, always six in number, instead of 5 as in mimus. Nias. — - enganica Doh. is enganic-a. 
the darkest of the yet known races of panthera. Doherty took only $>§. I have received about 10 which 
approach dolorosa Btlr. from Nias, but have entirely dark forewings, without paler subapical region. On the 
upper surface of the hindwings the ocelli showing through from beneath are obsoletely yellowish ringed. The 
