482 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



base. Head with the vertex red, the collar black ; frons red with a broad, black 

 central line ; eyes red -rimmed. There is a long, grey fringe of hairs along 

 inner margin of the fore wing. Tails : the longer, at vein 1, being 4 mm : the 

 shorter, at vein 2, one-quarter the length. 



De Niceville gives a key in which he tries to differentiate 23 forms-of Aphnceus 

 but fails to lind any constant characters by which he can separate lohita from 

 concanus, zoilus, zebrinus on the one hand and ictis from no less than 12 forms 

 on the other, although he considers that no more than six of these are good 

 species after careful examination of long series of most of them. He concludes, 

 in this way, that uniformis, elima, lunulifera, nubilis, khurdanus and trifurcata 

 are all varieties of ictis. Ictis inhabits Northern India, Kashmir, Ceylon ; 

 trifurcata. Northern India Dharmsala ; khurdanus, Calcutta, Khurda, Orissa ; 

 nubilis, Ceylon ; lunulifera, Darjiling ; elima, Manpuri, N. W. India, Kangra 

 Valley, Mhow, Poona ; uniformis. Mount Meru, Wurdhan. The distribution 

 rather supports the idea that they are all mere varieties of a variable 

 ictis. 



Considering all this talk about varieties and 'variations, it is no wonder 

 that there is no record of the habits of the butteriiy. All the ^vriter knows 

 about it is that it is very quick on the wing and comes freely to flowers in 

 Dharwar during the monsoon months. Dharwar is Plains country and very 

 open so that, as the insect has never been met wath in forest-covered Kanara 

 or Belgaum, it probably eschews jungles and very heavy rainfall and is 

 ■characteristic of the Plains. 



180. Aphnaus hypargyrus, Butler. — Male. Upperside : both wings fulvous, 

 dusky at the base and on the costa. Cilia whitish. Fore wing : with all the 

 bands on the underside represented above, but they are dusky -coloured, the 

 outer and inner margins also dusky ; the apex with a small, suffused, whitish 

 patch, sometimes obsolete. Hind wing : with two discal, more or less interrupt- 

 ed, dusky bands from the costa ; a submarginal cm'ved band (sometimes macular) 

 from the costa to vein 3 ; the outer margin with a series of conjoined, rounded 

 black spots ; sometimes a complete band ; the anal lobe smaU, black, with a 

 few silvery spangles. Underside : both wings chalky-white, all the bands and 

 spots ochreous outwardly, narrowly defined Avith black and sparsely spangled with 

 silver in the middle ; a series of short, linear black marks between the veins ; a 

 line, anteciliary, black line. Fore wing : with a small streak at the base of cell ; 

 a band across its middle joined to a basal, fuscous patch below the median 

 nervure ; an oblique, discal band ; two short bands from the costa beyond 

 forming a V-shaped figure more or less disconnected ; a submarginal, catenulated 

 band. Hind wing : with some small, basal marks ; three subbasal spots in a 

 straight line, the two upper ones sometimes joined ; a discal, continuous band 

 recurved upwards to the abdominal margin A\'ith a ring-sjjot on the margin ante- 

 rior to the posterior end of the band ; a short, sinuous band beyond from the costa 

 to just below vein 4 ; a sinuous, submarginal band, recurved and broken at its 

 lower end ; anal lobe Avith a prominent, black spot which is sometimes smTOunded 

 with ferruginous. Female. Upjjerside : both wings somewhat darker and duller 

 coloured than in the male, the wings rather broader. Underside : both wings as in 

 the male. Cilia pure white both above and below, with a line, brown, anteciliary 

 line beloAV. Antennae brownish, banded thinly white ; the club gradual, stout, 

 tipped orange. Palpi pale yellow above and below, the tip of third joint brown ; 

 the third joint long, longer in the female than in the male. Thorax light yeUow- 

 ish-brown above, abdomen light fulvous, banded very pale yelloAv ; below: 

 thorax and abdomen very pale yellow. Head with the vertex and frons very 

 pale yellow, the latter with a central, fulvous line. Inner margin of fore wing 

 with a longish, light brown fringe. Tails fulvous at base, broAvn in middle, 

 tipped white, that at end of vein 2 very short. Expanse 25-40 mm. 



