430 



THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS 



OF INDIA. 



(INCLUDING THOSE MET WITH IN THE HILL STATIONS 

 OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY). 



BY 



T. R. Bell, i.f.s. 



(Gontinv.ed from page 672 of Vol. XXIV.) 



Part XIX. 



3. Genus — Megisba. 



There is only one species of the genus, Megisba malaya, the one des- 

 cribed below. The distribution is given under the description. It is rather 

 like Neopithecops zalmora in appearance and markings, but difiers in the 

 shape of the wings ; the hind wing may be with or without a tail. 



129. Megisba malaya, Horsfield. — -Wet-season brood. — Male and female. 

 Upperside : from dull somewhat pale brown to dark brown, some specimens 

 nearly uniform, others with a more or less distinct, pale, discal patch on 

 fore wing. Hind wing: uniform; a slender, short, filamentous tail at 

 apex of vein 1, very often absent. Underside : white. Fore wing : with 

 the following brown markings : — a .spot in the cell, a transverse, short line 

 on the discocellulars, a postdiscal, curved series of transverse spots or very 

 short bars that cross the wing from costa to dorsum and are in irregular 

 echelon one with the other ; fallowed by a slender, transverse, broken 

 line ; a subterminal series of broader, transverse spots and an anteciliary, 

 slender line ; at apex of wing the markings are diffuse and form a very small, 

 brown-shaded patch while, further inwards, along the costa, veins 11 and 12 

 terminate in a minute, brown dot, and there is another further in above vein 

 12. Hind wing : three spots near base in transverse order ; a large, conspicuous, 

 rounded, subcostal and a small, similar spot r.ear the middle of the dorsum, 

 black ; between the latter two : a thin line along the discocellulars and five 

 irregular, much paler brown, transverse, serial spots and dashes which are 

 followed, as on the fore wing, by an outer postdiscal, very slender, brown 

 (here lunulate) line ; a subterminal series of brown or black spots and a 

 black, anteciliarly line. Cilia of fore and hind wings white, turning to 

 dark brown at apex of fore wing. Antennse, head, thorax and abdomen 

 dark-brown, the antennse ringed narrowly with white ; beneath: palpi, thorax 

 and abdomen snow-white ; the third, slender, acicular joint of the palpi 

 conspicuously brown ; antennal club tipped chestnut. 



Dri/ season brood. — Male and female. Very similar to the wet-season 

 brood, but the fore wing, on the upperside, bears a large, oval, obliquely- 

 placed, conical, white patch that extends from the middle of the dorsal margin 

 to vein 4. In certain specimens this white bar or patch is continued on to 

 the hind wing. Underside : similar to that of the wet-season form but all 

 the markings broader, coarser, more prominent. Fore wing : costa and apex 

 in some specimens broadly shaded with diffuse fiscous brown ; the outer, 

 postdiscal, brown line formed into a series of lunules that extend outwards, 

 slenderly, along the veins and join the anteciliary brown line, thus 

 enclosing, in the interspace, a series of spots of the white ground-colour, 

 each of which is centred with a black, or dark brown, subtriangular spot. 



