S(J NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXII. 1915. 



AN ANALYSIS OE THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS CURETIS, 



CHIEFLY BASED ON AN EXAMINATION OF THE SPECIMENS 



IN THE ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM, TRING. 



By T. a. chapman, M.D. 



(Plates III.— XIX.) 



A FEW species of this genns having come into my possession, I fonml 

 myself considerably puzzled by them. I made some additions to my 

 material and mounted some of the male appendages. The result was to 

 demonstrate that the accepted views (if there are any accepteil views) as to species 

 within the genns were in need of being revised. 



I obtained the loan, with permission to examine them, of specimens from 

 Mr. Bethnne-Baker, and especially from the Tring Museum and from other 

 collections. I herewith present the resnlts. 



The Tring material especially is rich enough to have afforded a solution to 

 most of the difficulties that were met with : it especially possesses the Felder types. 

 I bad also access, of course, to the types in the British Museum, and was able to 

 verify other specimens with them, so that I did not feel it necessary to desire 

 to dissect any of these. 



De NicSville (1890) regards the Indian species as being only two, and 

 Bingham (1907) accepts this as correct and says, "until extensive breeding 

 experiments are undertaken it will be impossible to attain any certainty as to 

 whether there are two or a dozen distinct forms." 



Both authors find the females to afford quite an insoluble problem, even within 

 the Indian area, and de Niceville says, " The females of both groups " {bulls and 

 thetis) "appear to be dimorphic, some being white, others ochroous." I think 

 I may say that in the Indian region there are no dimorphic females. Nevertheless 

 I raise a very similar question as regards species in the Pacific region : thetis has 

 a white female, yet in the Solomon Islands, a race that is otherwise tkelis has au 

 ochreous female, with markings different in form to typical thetis : are these races 

 of thetis, or are they specifically distinct ? Again, tagalica has an ochreous female, 

 yet in the island of Palawan a form palawanica Stand, has a white female, and so 

 was considered a form of thetis : are these one or two species ? It is to be noticed 

 that the dimorphism (if properly so called) does not occur within any one race, 

 but only as between allied races— a somewhat different problem to that which 

 de Niceville felt. 



Fruhstorfer has a survey of the known species of Cnretis in the Stettiner 

 Ent. Zeituny for 1908, p. 49, which may perchance be of some use in naming 

 specimens. As a discussion of the actual specific value of the various forms very 

 little can be said for it. He quotes de Nic^ville's Butterflies of India, and says 

 he makes no less than thirteen species from only Nortli India and Burma, and 

 that Distant makes five from the Malay Peninsula. 



This misrepresents de Niceville, who distinctly asserts his belief that he is 



