136 

 THE BUTTERFLIES OF LAHORE 



BY 



G. W. V. DE Rhe-Philipe, f.e.s. 



In recent issues of the Journal, we have been given papers on 

 the Birds of Lahore and on the Earthworms of Lahore. The 

 butterfly collector is not much in evidence in the Punjab plains ; 

 but a list of the RhojJcUocera to be found in Lahore, and its 

 immediate vicinity may find interested readers, and will serve as a 

 reference and aid to anyone who may wish to take up the stud)'- 

 in the future. 



The list is not a long one. For some months of the year — May 

 to July and even later — the climate is exceedinglj' hot and drj^, 

 while a heavy and almost continuous dust haze lies over every- 

 thing ; and the winter months can be very cold. Conditions such 

 as these are anj'thing but encouraging to butterfly life, and it is 

 only for a few weeks in September, October and eai'ly November, 

 that these insects show up in any real numbers. For the 

 remainder of the year they are either absent altogether or are 

 represented hj stray individuals of the more common and wide- 

 spread species. 



Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that so little 

 attention has been paid to the Lahore butterflies. And yet, 

 scanty as they are, they possess an interest of their own. Lahore 

 was, not so very many years ago, a very dr^'- sun-baked district ; 

 and the butterfly fauna had probably a close affinit}^ to the types 

 found in the desert tracts to the south-west. The spread of 

 irrigation in the last decade or two . has brought more humiditj- 

 into the climate ; and, while the old affinity to desert types still 

 persists in some directions, it is not improbable that the changed 

 conditions will, in course of time, facilitate the spread westwards 

 of some of the species characteristic of the damper country to the 

 south-east. We alreadj^ have one or two not usually connected 

 with a very dry habitat ; and it may be that a local list compiled, 

 say twent}^ yesa's hence, will show a yet further change in the 

 character of the butterfly fauna. 



I may explain that the list below refers only to Lahore and 

 its immediate neighbourhood, to which my collecting and 

 observations during the last four years or so have been restricted. 

 It may, however, be taken as typical of most of the eastern and 

 central Punjab districts outside the influence of the submontane 

 country to the east and north-east and of the pure desert to the south 

 and south-west. The countr}'- consists of a flat alluvial jDlain, cut up 

 at intervals by the rivers and their spill channels. The greater 

 portion of the culturable land is under crops. Waste land is 



