PIERIDAE 
137 
DElilAS 
The Piertdae form a small and compact family of biillertlies, and there can now be but few new forms 
awaiting discovery in Australia. The Australian species have never more than eleven veins in the fore¬ 
wing and in two genera only ten: vein 8 is always absent: vein 9 is absent in Delias and in Elodina, and 
in other genera is just on the point of being lost, for it is emitted from vein 7 close to the apex of the 
wing. 
Key to the aenera of PIERIDAE. 
A. Forewing with vein 8 and vein 9 absent: vein 11 and vein 12 free. 
a. Forewing Avith vein 10 from vein 7 close to apex .. Delias. 
h. Forewing Avith vein 10 from A^ein 7 just beyond end of cell . Elodina. 
B. Forewing Avith vein 8 absent and vein 9 jiresent. 
a. Forewing with vein 11 and vein 12 anastomosing . Anapliaeis. 
h. ForeAA’ing A\nth vein 11 and A’ein 12 free. 
rth Precostal spur of hindAving Avell dcA^eloped: A*ein 10 of foreAving from subcostal Avell 
before end of cell. 
or. Apex of foreAving acute: anal segment of abdomen Avith Iavo prominent tufts of 
stiff hairs beneath . Appias. 
h“. Apex of foreAving rounded: anal segment of abdomen Avithout tufts of hairs beneath Huphina. 
hh Precostal spur of hindAving feebly developed: vein 10 of foreAving from subcostal just 
before end of cell . Catopsilia. 
* A. Precostal si^ur of hindAving absent. Terias. 
Genus DELIAS Hubner. 
Verzeiehniss bekaimter Schmetterliugo, p. 91, 1816: Butler, Annals iVIagazine Katural History 189G, p, 143: 
Mitis, Iris 1893, jip. 97-153. 
Antennae about half the length of costa, ForeAving Avitli vein 11 from subcostal onefiftli before end 
of cell; A’ein 10 from A'ein 7 close to apex: A^ein 9 and vein 8 absent: A'ein 6 from A’ein 7 at about half. 
Hindwing Avith precostal spur jAresent. (Fig. AD). Pui)a angular and with long dorsal spines, the 
front pair of Avhich are often hooked (Fig. P. 521). 
Type. Delias egialea Cramer, from Java. 
Foodplant. Loranthus. 
This genus is confined to the Indo-Anstralian Region: several of our species ha\’e representatiA^es in 
Few Guinea and elseAvhere, but liarpalyce and aganippe are confined to Australia. The butterflies are 
all handsome insects with a more or less brilliant display of colours beneath: inferna is the one exeep- 
hon, being brilliantly coloured aboA’e and almost entirely black beneath; the black margins are ahvaj’S 
much broader in the female. We cannot recognise D. ellipsis described by Johannis as from Australia, 
and as Fruhstorfer does not mention it in Seitz' Macrolepidoptera, Pieridae^ we have decided to omit it. 
In some species of this genus the larvae are gregarious, but in others not more than three or four 
will be found upon the one foodplant. The knoAvn Australian larvae all feed u^Aon some species of 
mistletoe (Loranthus), but aganippe also feeds upon nativ’c cberiy [Exocarpus ciipressiforynis). The 
absence of Loranthus from Tasmania accounts for the absence of the genus Delias from the island, but 
as the native cherry occurs lAlentifully, it is just possible aganippe will yet be taken there. 
