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



188 a. Horaga viola. — Male. Upperside : blackish-brown with a slight 

 violet tint. Fore wing with a somewhat oval white patch outside the cell, 

 varying in size in different examples. Hind wing without markings, tails 

 black, tipped with white, outer marginal line of both wings finely black. 

 Underside paler with a stronger violet tint. Fore wing : with the white 

 patch continued to the hinder margin, somewhat constricted at the sub- 

 median vein. Hind wing : with a black, anal spot ; another usually (but 

 not always) in the first interspace ; and soaie obscure blackish spots in 

 the others. Antennje black, ringed with white ; head and body above and 

 below concolorous with the wings ; no sex mark in the male. Female. 

 Upperside : dull greyish-blue. Fore wing : with the white patch larger 

 than it is in the male ; costal black band rather broad, widening gradually 

 from the base to the apex, filling up the whole apical space outside the white 

 patch and broad down the outer margin to the hinder angle. Hind wing : 

 with the costal space broadly blackish, with a small white patch on the 

 middle of the costa ; the outer margin with a narrow, more or less macular, 

 black band ; marginal line finely deep black, with an inner, white thread. 

 Underside as in the male. Expanse : male, 22 mm. ; female, 25 mm. 



Larva. — A single specimen from a larva found feeding in Mussuri on 

 the leaves of the Coriaria nepalensis. It is a most curious-looking creature, 

 about half an inch long, of a reddish-brown colour, of the usual lycsenid 

 shape, but furnished with eleven tentacular processes, two on the third 

 segment, one each on the fourth, seventh, eighth, and ninth segments, all 

 dorsal, the fifth has three, two lateral and one dorsal, the eleventh has 

 two lateral ones. (Mackinnon and de NicSville). Habitat. ^ — India. The 

 type caiTie from Dharmasala, N. W. Himalayas; Mackinnon and de Niceville 

 record it from Mussuri and Sikkim ; Colonel Swinhce has it from Nilgiris, 

 3,500 feet elevation and says: " it is a rare species, though widely distri- 

 buted." It has also been taken in Kanara, Bombay Presidency. 



34. Genus — Loxura. 



" Eyes naked, body short, only moderately robust ; palpi long (still lon- 

 ger in the female), flattened and scaled throughout, second joint outreach- 

 ing the head by two-thirds its length, third joint half its length ; legs 

 short, thick and scaled ; antennae short, only one-third the length of the 

 costa, thickened throughout their length." (Moore, as quoted by de Niceville). 



De Niceville says that " four species of the genus have been recorded 

 from India. I am unable to give a single character by which these species- 

 can be identified They are very conspicuous butterflies on the wing 



and are usually found amongst trees and bushes, especially bamboos. They 

 have rather a weak flight and their long tails soon get broken." At the- 

 present day these forms have all been placed under the single name 

 atpntius as separate races characterizing difl'erent regions in India; Ceylon;, 

 the Andamans ; South India ; and North India, Burma and the Nicobars, 

 They are all, however, represented in Kanara District of Bombay ; so they 

 do not even merit to be considered as races. The butterfly also inhabits, 

 outside India, the Malay Peninsula and some of the Malay Islands. The 

 larva and pupa are somewhat abnormal in shape, the former having a waist 

 and being shining as to surface, the latter having only the tail attach- 

 ment and the last segment hoof-shaped. The foodplant is Smila.r or- 

 Diosoorea, only the young shoots being eaten ; the former belonging to the 

 Liliaceae, the other next door to it. 



189. Loxura atymnus, Cramer. — Male. Upperside: both wings tawny-golden,, 

 the intensity of the tint varying in individuals, from florid but not glossy- 

 orange to pale saft'ron-yellow. Fore wing : the exterior and posterior 

 margins blackish brown, the inside boundary being regular and passing. 



