ELYMNIAS. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
391 
Bay and Aroa River, British New Guinea. — If we keep to the south side of New Guinea and penetrate west¬ 
wards into the Dutch territory, we meet with a new form on the Onin Peninsula in Kapaur; muscosa Fruhst. muscosa. 
(89 d). SS from Kapaur show light yellowish green markings on the wings. The bordering of the wings recalls 
melagondas Fruhst., but is broader, light green on the forewings, pale mossgreen with a rudimentary orange 
subanal band on the hindwings. The £ again tends towards the normal Taenaris bioculatus, Guer. type. The 
distal border of the hindwings and the rings round the 2 large circular blue eyespots become broadly black. 
If we now pass over to the Trabantes of New Guinea, we find melanthes 8m. $ Black with steel-blue submar- melanthes. 
ginal band, $ almost white, reminding of Taenaris artemis affinis, Kirby and artemis electra Fruhst. Wood¬ 
lark Island. moranda Fruhst. (89 d 2 lettered as biocellatus, 90 a); The $ showa great similarity to Taen. morandci. 
bioculata Guer. <§. Upper surface broadly blue-green bordered. Waigiu. agondina Fruhst. $ with the blue agondirui. 
eye-spots on the hindwings reduced to mere dots with unusually broad black rings. Distal border of all wings 
broadly diffused, almost deep black. Distal border of <3$ a peculiar violet blue. The $ recalls Taenaris dimona 
Hew. Salwati Island. — melantho Wall. Gagie Island. Apparently near melanthes 8m. because the bear melantho. 
a bluish border on the wings. with black basal and apical area on the hindwings. — melane Hew. is a rare melane. 
race from the Key Islands, which flies in swampy places in woods. The d'c? betray an inclination to agondas 
australiana Fruhst. in the much broadened greenish white subanal band on the hindwings. Both sexes are deco¬ 
rated on the under surface with a series of 5 small broadly ochre ringed ocelli. The show the same general 
Taenarid likeness, but without inclining to any special species. Four main forms are worthy of mention; The 
first, most like the <$, melane has only a diffuse greyish lightening of the black groundcolour on the forewings, 
a large, pure white discal spot on the hindwings, which does not reach the ocellar space, the ocelli stand entirely 
in the black ground; on the under surface of the hindwings the ochre-yellow band, in which the three anal 
ocelli are placed, has an anterior broad black boundary. The second $ has on the forewings a white discal band, 
which is divided into four parts by the black veins; the hindwing is extensively white, so that the inner half 
of the ocelli comes within the white ground; hindwing underside as in the first $, only that the discal spot is 
purer white. The forewing of the third ^ is white with the exception of the basal area and the costal and ter¬ 
minal margins; on the hindwing the two upper anal ocelli are entirely on the white ground, the third, most 
anal, is still surrounded by black; on the underside of the hindwing the ochre yellow band bearing the ocelli 
is entirely on the white ground, only the costal and terminal margins of the wings are still black; the ochre 
yellow band is finely bordered with black on both inner and outer sides. The fourth 9 has fore- and hind-wings 
pure white, excepting the costal and terminal borders, the ocelli on the upper surface of the hindwing are en- ' 
tirely on the white ground, the same on the underside, where the ochre-yellow band has still the black bordering, 
which is never found in the $. In the latter the yellow of the ocellar area passes into the white of the submar¬ 
ginal band without any bordering. Thus we see in these 4 $$ accurately portrayed the gradual transition from 
a someAvhat dull habitus, scarcely recalling Taenaris, to a pure white, which has a striking resemblance to Tae¬ 
naris. — aruana Fruhst. Aru, both sexes darker than in melane from Key. — goramensis Fruhst. <$ the most aruana. 
broadly greenish white banded of all the agondas forms, 2 still unknown. Goram. — australiana Fruhst. (90 b). 9 orame nsis. 
$ smaller than the Goram form. Bands rather narrower, underside of hindwing -with 3 instead of 5 ocelli. Other¬ 
wise very similar to the preceeding. Cape York, North Australia, australiana is the only representative of the 
genus Elymnias yet known from Australia, and which Waterhouse has forgotten to include in his “Catalogue 
of the Rhopalocera of Australia, Sidney 1903”. 
E. paradoxa Stgr. (= erastus 8m.) may here be mentioned, as a form allied by the shape of the wings, par ado xa. 
but otherwise quite isolated, inhabits German New Guinea. Upper surface black with dull white-grey disc 
of the forewing, but with large, pure white area on the hindwing, which is oblong in'shape and scarcely enters 
the cell. Forewings beneath with paler grey-wliite interspaces, beginning broadest on the costa. Hindwing 
as above, but the median area towards the basal margin backwards and outwards rich cinnamon brown. Ex¬ 
tremely rare. $ from Constantine harbour in Astrolabe Bay; from the Sattelberg near Finschhafen. 
II. Forewing with, scent tufts on the sub median. 
Subgenus Mimidelias Moore (Agrusia Moore). 
The few as yet known species of this group differ from Elymnias s. sir. in the more rounded wings, shorter cells, the 
concavely produced anal margin of the forewing — similar to Mandarinia , Taenaris and some Euploeas — and the very slightly 
angulated and much longer discocellulars of the hindwing. Forewing of with an elongate, deeply impressed androconia 
cavity, from which spring yellow or black hair pencils. Hindwing with a subcostal tuft. The false prediscoidal cell or precostal 
cell of the hindwing is not wanting in the Mimadelias, as some authors state. The Mimadelias with their $$ deceptively like 
the Pieridae, and the $$ furnished with scent tufts, form a natural group. Yet really important generic characters do not exist, 
and the separation of Agrusia contemplated by Moore is entirely superfluous. 
E. vasudeva falls into four, not very sharply defined local races, which occur from Sikkim across Burma vasudeva. 
and Tenasserim south to the Siamese Malay States. — vasudeva Moore (^ = thycana Moore) is somewhat similar 
