^^1 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



astouishine; is the resemhlauce to a dead leaf by reason of the wonder- 

 ful shading of both wings with the dark line running up the middle 

 by way of midrib and the production of the fore and hind wing at 

 the apex and anal angle to represent the point and stalk, respectively. 

 No two specimens of Kallima are exactly alike in the colouring or 

 even pattern of the underside and they are dark and ocellated (with 

 ring-spots) in the wet season, much lighter M'ith clearer markings 

 and without ocellations in the dry season when the points to the 

 wings are also much more accentuated. In the wet season, the time 

 of the presence of many forms of grey fungus on the damp dark 

 leaves, the wings are often marked with chalky grey rings for all 

 the world like the fungus in question. In Melanitis of the Satyrince 

 which settles on the ground amongst dead leaves, often lying side- 

 ways with closed wings, the marking is so varied to resemble the 

 feurroundings that it is difficult to .spot an insect once at rest ; in 

 these also no two individuals are exactly alike and the production 

 of the wings is exaggerated in the cold weather. The wet-season 

 forms of many of the satyrine butterflies are so different from the 

 dry-season ones ihat some of them were for a long time classed as 

 distinct species. Melanitis icda was the dry-season form. M. ismene 

 the rains form for example. All the nymphaline Jtmonia butter- 

 tiies, too, show a tendency towards a drj'-season accentuation of the 

 wings and simplification of the markings of the underside; more 

 particularly is this expressed in J. almana which, in the dry 

 weather, has the underside coloured to resemble a dead leaf, the 

 rains form being heavily ocellated ; and these two forms were 

 formerly considered to be distinct species : J. almana and J. asterie, 

 respectively. Seasonal variation as regards colour and pattern is a 

 common phenomenon among butterflies and many species have, in 

 this way, two well-recognised forms, the wet and dry season ones 

 so-called, showing itself in the former in a more or less important 

 development of black colouration in some cases, in the appearance of 

 dark patches on the underside in others, in difference of shading and 

 3ven, as above mentioned, in a change in the outline of the wings. 

 The quicker growing monsoon-forms are small and dark, the slower 

 growing dry weather forms are large and lighter — always of course 

 presupposing a plentiful supply of food in both cases. Starved 



