A Monograph of Limnaina and Euplaeina, two Groups of Diurnal Lepidoptera belonging to the Sub-family Euplaeinae; with descriptions of new genera and species

1883.] MR. F. MOORE 0>f LIMNAINA AND EUPLCEINA. 201 4. A Monograph of Limnaina and Euplceina, two Groups of Diurnal Lepidoptera belonging to the Subfamily Eu-ploeinie ; with Descriptions of new Genera and Species. By F. Moore, F.Z.S., A.L.S., &c. Part I. Limnaina. [Eeceived April 2, 1883.] (Plates XXIX-XXXII.') The group of Butterflies here mouographed has, by modern authors, been arranged under the subfamily name of Dauainse. By Linnaeus (Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 470) they were placed in the second division of his Papiliones Danai, namely in that of the D.festivi, his first division, containing the " Whites " or modern Pierinse, being the D. candidi. Esper in 1777 (Die Schmett. i. p. 53) having figured several species of Pieriuse under the generic term Danaus, both Fabricius (Ent. Syst. iii. p. 39, 1793) and Weber (Nomeu. Ent. pp. 99, 106, 1 795) having also entirely separated the D.festivi from the D. candidi under the name of Festivi, and Cuvier (Tableau Element, p. 590, 1 798) having cited species of Pierinse only as Danai, it follows that these authors, having thus restricted the Danai of Linnaeus to the D. candidi (or modern Pierinee), the term " Danainse " cannot be retained for the present subfamily. The following summary of the labours of subsequent authors will help to show the progress made in thestudy of this interesting group of Butterflies. , Latreille in 1805 (Hist. Nat. des Crust, et Insectes, xiv. p. 108) established his genus Danaida, giving as the type Papilio plexippus (one of the species mentioned in the Linnean division D.festivi), and citing America as the habitat of that species. In 1807 he altered this name to Datiais, and in 1809 to that of Danaus'^. In 1807 Fabricius (Illiger's Mag. vi. p. 280) estabhshed his genus Euplcea, giving as the types the P. plexippus and P. similis of Linnaeus, and P. corns, a species of his own. Hiibner (Verz. bek. Schmett. pp. 14-17, 1816) arranged the group of the then described species in his second Stirps of the tribe Nym-phales, under the name of Limnades — equivalent to the Linnean Danai festivi and the Fabrician Festivi — his first stirps being the Nereides, comprising the Heliconii of the later authors. The species known to him are divided into three sections, the first and second being equivalent to the Danais and Hestia of Doubleday, and the third to Eupkm of the same author ; the species of the first and second sections are arranged under the briefly characterized genera Amauris, Hestia, Euplwa, and Anosia, those of the third section under Trepsichrois, Crastia, and Salpinx. ' Plates XXIX.-XXXII. will bo givena long with Part II. of the present paper, read May 1st. ■^ See notes to genus Anosia, p. 234 postea. 14*