Page:EB1911 - Volume 16.djvu/497

Rh and emperors. In most cases the bright colouring is confined to the upper surface of the wings, the under-side being mottled and often inconspicuous. Most members of the group Vanessidi—the peacock and tortoiseshells (Vanessa) and the red admiral (Pyrameis) for

example—hibernate in the imaginal state. This large family is divided into several sub-families whose characters may be briefly given, as they are considered to be distinct families by many entomologists. The Danainae (or Euploeinae, fig. 66) have the anal nervures of the forewing arising from a common stalk, the discoidal areolets in both wings closed, and the front feet of the female thickened; their

larvae are smooth with fleshy processes. The danaine butterflies range over all the warmer parts of the world, becoming most numerous in the eastern tropics, where flourish the handsome purple Euploeae whose males often have “brands” on the wings; these insects are conspicuously marked and are believed to be distasteful to birds and lizards. So are the South American Ithomiinae,

distinguished from the Danainae by the slender feet of the females; the narrow winged, tawny Acraeinae, with simple anal nervures, thick hairy palps and spiny larvae; and the Heliconiinae whose palps are compressed, scaly at the sides and hairy in front. This last named sub-family is confined to the Neotropical Region, while the Acraeinae are most numerous in the Ethiopian. The Nymphalinae include the British vanessids (fig. 65), and a vast assemblage of exotic genera (figs. 68, 70), characterized by

the “open” discoidal areolets (fig. 67) owing to the absence of the transverse “disco-cellular” nervules. In the Morphinae—including some magnificent South American insects with deep or azure

blue wings, and a few rather dull-coloured Oriental genera—the areolets are closed in the forewings and often in the hindwings. The larvae of the Morphinae (fig. 71) are smooth