The Butterfly Book / A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America

by W. J. Holland

Genus HYPOLIMNAS, Hübner
(The Tropic Queens)

Butterfly.—Eyes naked. The palpi are produced, rising above the head, heavily scaled. The antennæ have a well-developed, finely pointed club. The fore wings have stout costal and median veins. The subcostal throws out five nervules, the first two before the end of the cell, the third midway between the end of the cell and the outer border; the fourth and the fifth diverge from each other midway between the third and the outer border, and both terminate below the apex. The upper discocellular vein is wanting; the middle discocellular vein is bent inwardly; the lower discocellular is very weak, and, in some species, wanting. The cell of the hind wing is lightly closed.

Caterpillar.—The caterpillar is cylindrical, thickest toward the middle. The head is adorned with two erect rugose spines; the segments have dorsal rows of branching spines, and three lateral rows on either side of the shorter spines. It feeds on various species of malvaceous plants and also on the common portulaca.

Chrysalis.—The chrysalis is thick, with the head obtusely pointed; the abdominal segments adorned with a double row of tubercles. The thorax is convex.

This genus, which includes a large number of species, reaches its fullest development in the tropics of the Old World, and includes some of the most beautiful, as well as the most singular, forms, which mimic the protected species of the Euplœinæ, or milkweed butterflies, of the Indo-Malayan and Ethiopian regions. In some way one of the most widely spread of these species, which is found throughout the tropics of Asia and Africa, has obtained lodgment upon the soil of the New World, and is occasionally found in Florida, where it is by no means common. It may be that it was introduced from Africa in the time of the slave-trade, having been accidentally brought over by ship. That this is not impossible is shown by the fact that the writer has, on several occasions, obtained in the city of Pittsburgh specimens of rare and beautiful tropical insects which emerged from chrysalids that were found attached to bunches of bananas brought from Honduras.

[a]Fig. 105.]—Neuration of the genus Hypolimnas.

(1) Hypolimnas misippus, Linnæus, Plate XXI, Fig. 9, ♂; Fig. 10, ♁ (The Mimic).

Butterfly, ♂.—On the upper side the wings are velvety-black, with two conspicuous white spots on the fore wing, and a larger one on the middle of the hind wing, the margins of these spots reflecting iridescent purple. On the under side the wings are white, intricately marked with black lines, and black and reddish-ochraceous spots and shades.

♁.—The female mimics two or three forms of an Oriental milkweed butterfly, the pattern of the upper side of the wings conforming to that of the variety of the protected species which is most common in the region where the insect is found. The species mimicked is Danais chrysippus, of which at least three varietal forms or local races are known. The American butterfly conforms in the female sex to the typical D. chrysippus, to which it presents upon the upper side a startling likeness. On the under side it is marked much as the male. Expanse, ♂, 2.50 inches; ♁, 3.00 inches.