( 3fiO ) 

 i;52. Papilio agestor Gray [t?,?]. 



Papilio ngeatiir Oray, Zaitl. .Misc. p. 32 (1^32) (" Sumatra" /«•. err.) ; Boisd., Sjkc. Gfii. Up. I. 

 p. 37r.. n. i-iS (1J*3G): Doubl. Westw. & Hew., 6V«. Diuni. Lrp. I. p. 21. n. 2t;2 (1840) 

 (.Vcpaul : Asi-am) ; Gray, I.ip. Im. Nipaiil p. 6. t. 4. f. 2 (184G) ; Gray, Cut. Lrp. /ii.i. li. M. 

 I. p. 71. n. .32r> (18.o2) (X. India) : id.. Lhl Lep. Ins>. B. M. I. p. 82. n. 340 (185G) (N. India : 

 Xepaul. 1 ? presented liy M.-Gen. Haixhvickc 1) : Hoi-sf. & Moore, Oit. Lep. [int. Mux. E. I. C. 

 I. p. '.II. II. 18(; (18.57) (N. India: Daijeeling): I'eltl., Veili. z. h. (Vc«. Whn p. 308. n. 278 

 (1X04) (/../'•) : Moore, /'. Z. S. p. 7oG (18G5) : Oberth., Kl. (riCnt. IV. p. 100. n. 318 (1870) ; 

 Standing, it Schatz. Exot. Schm. 1. p. 6 (1884): Klwes, 7V. Eiil. Sni: Loud. p. 431. n. 422 

 (1888) (^fijmii. p.p.; Sikkim : rare, (iOOO to 70nO feet, and at l.)wer clcv.itions) ; Haase, 

 Uiiteri'uch. iib. Mini. p. 48. t. 7. f. 47 (1893). 



Ciulxiyoidex agestor, Moore, P. Z. S. p. 260 (1882) (dcscv. of "genus" Cadiigoidcx) ; Swinh., Tr. 

 Eiil. Sor. Loud. p. 315. n. 407 (1893) (Khasia Hills). 



Piipilio {Ciidiigoidex) ugi'stnr, Niceville, Gazetteer of Sikkim p. 174. n. 490 (1804) (Sikkim ; single- 

 brooded, rather rare, March to May, 5000 to 7000 feet). 



Tlii.^ species has three well distingui.shable geographical forms; one inhabits 

 North-West India, including Cashmere, a second Western China, and a third North 

 India; a fointh race, which is, however, scarcely worth being treated as such, flies 

 in the Malay Peninsula and North- West 8iani. These forms run into one another, and 

 specimens from interjacent districts can just as well be treated as belonging to the 

 one as to the other sulispecies respectively. 



Gray described the species from General Hardwicke's collection; the description 

 is so short that it applies to both the North and North-West Indian races. In IS-IC 

 he published a figure taken from General Hardwicke's collection of drettcinijs, and 

 gave to it, as in the first description in 1832, the erroneous habitat Sumatra. In 

 his List, etc. (I.e.) Gray enumerates a specimen of agestor from Nepaul, presented 

 hv Major-Gen. Hardwicke ; this specimen cannot be regarded as tlie actual type 

 of the species, the species being described from a drawing, not from a specimen. 

 Now Giay's figure does not fit the Assam and Sikkim Papilio usually understood 

 to be ai/estor Lh-ay, and there arises the question, which is the true (igestor (iray? 

 i.e. to which local race has the name of agestor to be restricted? As Gray's 

 descriptions oi agestor are too incomplete to be of any value in solving that (piestion, 

 we must rely entirelv upon his figure. In the hindwings bearing a complete series 

 of small gvey spots midway between cell and outer margin, and being shaded with 

 blacki.sli brown outside these spots, especially anteriorly, and in having a long grey 

 streak along the abdominal margin, the figure agrees exactly with certain /cv/irt/fs 

 of Mr. F. Moore's P. govindra from the North-West Himahiyas. The outline of the 

 hindwings is the same as in Sikkim and A.ssam specimens, which have the wings 

 much more angulate than the North- West Indian e.xamjiles ; I must add that in 

 one of my Cashmere specimens the hindwings are, however, formed us in those from 

 Assam. .'\s the fenmles of all races of the present Papilio have iUr hindwings more 

 rounded than the males, Hardwicke's drawing was evidently taken from a inale with 

 a pattern similar to that of the fenu ties of the North-West Indian govindra. 



Such males, which in fact stand intermediate between the Sikkim and Assam 

 agestor on the one hand mid goiindra on the other, occur, however, in Nei>aul, and are 

 there the usual form, as far as I could ascertain. The fact that General Hardwicke's 

 collection was especially rich in Nepaul insects, and that, to my knowledge, derived 

 from the various articles published about insects of Hardwicke's collection, he had 

 only a few or scarcely any from the ea.stern parts of North India, can but strengthen 

 my opinion. If I am right in ray surmise that Gray's type was a iKaJe from Nepaul, 

 it was al>o most probably from the more ea.stern districts of that province, considering 



