OCR Text |
Show 518 MR. A. G. BUTLER ON THE GENUS ELYMNIAS. [June 6, This animal has been curiously confounded with Geoemyda spinosa. Dr. Cantor, who first had it in a perfect state, in his list of Malay Reptiles considers it the adult of that species. Being desirous of obtaining the types of the species described by Solomon Miiller, we purchased from Mr. Franks a series of specimens obtained from the Leyden Museum, with the labels of that institution attached to them. Having received in this series a young specimen of Geoemyda spinosa labelled Testudo emys, in the ' Catalogue of Shield Reptiles' I placed that species as a synonym of Geoemyda spinosa, not considering it necessary to consult the figure in Muller's book, or I should have discovered the mistake. Dr. Gunther corrected this in his ' Reptiles of British India,' and properly changed the name from Manouria fusca into Manouria emys. Mr. Theobald names this species "Manouria emys, Gray," instead of Schlegel or Giinther; but there are many instances of want of accuracy of this kind, to which his note to T. elongata would be as applicable as to the oversight for which he quotes it. M . A. Dumeril, in his ' Catalogue of Reptiles,' p. 4. no. 7*, and iu the ' Archives du Museum,' described, under the name of Testudo emydoides, a specimen which he received from Leyden as Testudo emys of Miiller; and his name is evidently a translation of the French name given to that species; but he does not mention the peculiar form of the pectoral plates, and it is very probable that he received, as the British Museum did, a young specimen of Geoemyda spinosa under a wrong name; and then his name and description will belong to the latter species and not to Manouria. They are very much alike, although belonging to different families. 4. A Monograph of the Lepidoptera hitherto included in the Genus Elymnias. By A. G. B U T L E R , F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. [Received May 19, 1871.] (Plate XLII.) The present group of Butterflies is one of the most interesting of all the Rhopalocerous genera, not only because it exhibits a transition from the Satyrinee to the Brassolince (see Cat. Fabr. Diurn. Lepid. p. 39), but because the species composing it are, almost without exception, of a mimetic character. In the « Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera,' pp. 404, 405, only twelve species are enumerated; this number has since been more than doubled by the labours of Messrs. Hewitson, Wallace, Felder, and others, so that the genus is now beginning to assume a somewhat important aspect. I find, however, after a careful examination of the structural characters, that some of the species differ so considerably from the type form in the neuration of the hind wings that it will be advisable to separate them as a distinct genus ; whilst others |