438 



THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS 



OF INDIA. 



(INCLUDING THOSE MET WITH IN THE HILL STATIONS 

 OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY). 



BY 



T. R. Bell, i.f.s. 



{Continued from page 140 of Vol. XXVI. ) 



Part XXIL 

 (With Plate H.) 

 18. Genus — Iraota. 



De NiceviUe says that this genus and Amhlypodix are structurally the most 

 aberrant of the Lidia Lyccenidce, because of the veins 7, 8, 9 being stalked and 

 9 being wanting in the female. Iraota is fm-ther : haracterised by the size of 

 the butterflies : 1-5 to 1 ' 8 inches in expanse, by the brilliant metallic blue of 

 the male upperside and by the highly variegao'd chestnut miderside in both 

 sexes with prominent silvery markings ; the males have, besides, a lobe and only 

 one thread-like tail to the hind wing, while the female has a lobe and two. The 

 genus occiu's almost throughout Lidia except in the desert tracts and the higher 

 Himalayas ; in Ceylon ; in Burma ; the Malay Peninsula ; Java ; Borneo ; the 

 Philippine Islands and China. De Niceville states that there are three species,^ 

 two of which are confined to Malay. The transformations of timoleon (=mcBcenas) 

 are described below : — 



163. Iraota timoieon ; StoU. — ^Male. Upperside: both wings black, the 

 lower discal area of the fore wing (this has little hair-fringe on inner margin) 

 and the disc of the hind wing rich, deep, metallic blue, changing to purple in 

 certain lights and varying in extent on both wings. Underside : both wings 

 chocolate red-brown or chestnut. Fore wing : with the following silvery mark- 

 ings : — a club-shaped mark in the cell from base outwards over vein 7 but not 

 touching the subcostal nervvue and reaching a little beyond the middle ; a large 

 rounded spot on the discoceUular nervules ; a discal series of four inwardly 

 angulated lunules in interspaces 2 to 6 in a straight line under each other, the 

 middle one obsolescent, the two uppermost the smallest ; a broad band of 

 darkish suffusion from base along middle of wing to nearly the outer margin ; 

 inner margin pale, with a tuft of hairs near the middle. Hind wing : with a 

 very prominent, curiously-shaped, silvery band extending from the base where 

 it is narrow, suddenly broadens, has a point upwards and a lobe downwards, 

 then narrows and turns upwards to expand into another large lobe near the 

 middle of the costa ; a small silvery spot below the band on the upper discoceUular 

 nervule and two angulated, outwardly-curved, pale whitish, ante-and post- 

 medial lines, indistinct beyond and diffuse from the abdominal margin across 

 wing, as also a terminal and subterminal, indistinct, whitish line ; anal lobe 

 black with a long, somewhat broad, black tail tipped with white at the end of 

 vein 1 and a point at veins 2 and 3. — Female. Upperside : both wings purplish- 

 brown. Fore wing with a large lower, discal patch of shining, generally metallic 

 pm-ple of variable size. Hind wing sometimes with a small, irrorated patch 

 of purple scales in the middle of the disc. Underside : both wings similar to 

 the male but all the markings more prominent. There are medium-sized extra 

 points at the end of vein 2. Antennae black, the club roimd with tip pale» 

 orange-red ; head and body black above, brown beneath ; palpi white beneath ; 

 eyes ringed with white, frons white with brown hairs ; cilia white and brown in. 

 patches. 



