304 THE entomologist's record. 



marginal lunular lines ; the hindwing with three black sub-basal and an apical 

 spot, a white-bordered, dusky-brown, discoeellular lunule, a discal row of lunules, 

 and a marginal lunular line, the latter enclosing two large subanal black spots 

 bordered with ochreous. ? Upperxide : Both wings violet-brown, the lower basal 

 and discal areas more or less greyish-blue ; the hindwing with a marginal row of 

 white-bordered, black spots, the two spots between the median nervules bordered 

 with a red inner lunule. Underside : Both wings as in the <? . Occurs in Ceylon 

 at " Colombo, in open and cultivated land " (Hutchison) ; " Galle and Kandy, 

 very common " (Wade). Distribution : .Java (Horsfield), Bengal, Ceylon (Moore), 

 Mhow (Swinhoe), Nicobar Isles (Wood-Mason), Malacca, Singapore (Distant), 

 Celebes (Snellen), Australia (Semper) (Moore). 



Distant also described it in 1884 {Ilhop. Mcdayana, p. 221), and, 

 besides the detailed description, he notes : — 



Exp. wings c? and ? , 24 to 30 millim. Hab. : Continental India, Sikkim 

 (Calcutta Mus.), N.-E. Himalaya (coll. Dist.), Ceylon (Thwaites' coll. Dist.), 

 Nicobar Is., Nankouri (Wood-Mason and de Nic), Malay Peninsula, Malacca 

 (Biggs' coll. Dist.), Singapore (Kerr — coll. Dist.), Java (coll. Horsf.), Celebes 

 (Snellen). I did not receive this species in time to have it lithographed with the 

 other members of the family, but the woodcut will be quite sufficient — if the 

 description is also consulted — to at once determine this well-marked Lycsenid. Its 

 geographical range is doubtless far wider than I have been at present able to 

 determine (Distant). 



Elwes seems (Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud., 1888, p. 382) to have been 

 the first to throw doubt on its specific distinctness, and in his 

 " Lepidoptera Sikkim" [op. cit.) writes: — 



Lyc.\ena pakkhasius. 



Hesperia parrhasiits, Fabr., "Ent Syst.," iii.. 1, p. 289 (1783). 



Li/caena dipont, Moore, " Proc. Zool. Soc," 1865, p. 506, pi. xxxii., fig. 8. 



This is a tropical form of the wide-ranging L. argimles, Pall., which occurs in 

 the north-west Himalaya under the name of diponi, Moore A com- 

 parison of my Indian series, viz., 10 pairs from the N. W. Himalaya, 6 pairs from 

 Khasia, 8 from Ceylon, and one from Java, with 6 pairs from Japan, 2 from 

 Shanghai, and 12 from Germany, leads me to doubt whether parrJiasius and 

 argiades can be distinguished with certainty, etc. 



We have already noted that Chapman has determined that at least 

 part of Elwes' Indian specimens (those now deposited in the Brit. Mus. 

 coll.) are really Evcres arrfiades ab. diporides, Chapman, and that this 

 probably accounts for the sweeping character of the statement quoted. 



In 1890, de Niceville (IJntts. of India, etc., p. 138), as noted antea, 

 p. 303 states that " no author has placed parrJiasiua, Fab., and dipora, 

 Moore, as synonyms of an/iades, Pall., but no author has undertaken 

 to show how these three species differ. I can find absolutely no 

 character by which to separate them," etc. He followed this state- 

 ment up in 1895, b}' boldly sinking parrhasix.'i (Butts, of Sumatra, -p. 

 455), when dealing with the Sumatran insect (which is undoubtedly 

 pa7-r/iasius), as Eceres argiades, and writes of it: — 



Everes nrrjiades, Pallas. [Snellen as parrhasiu.'< ; Hagen as parrhasius. It 

 has been described by Herr N. Kheil, from Nias, as Pleheina polysperchiintf:.'] In 

 Sumatra it is common at low elevations in October and November ; as usual the 

 c? s on roads, the ? s on flowers in small jungle. In his valuable work on The 

 ithopalocera of Nias Island, Herr Kheil calls Polyommatus boeticus, Linn., the 

 " cardui " of the Lycaenidiie, but E. argiades better deserves that epithet as it has 

 a still greater range, occurring in North America under a slightly modified form 

 (as E. comtjntas, Godart), which P. boeticus does not do. Dr. Martin notes that 

 European specimens of E. argiades have the spots on the underside of the wings, 

 somewhat more prominent than on Sumatran examples. 



It will be observed that de Niceville refers Kheil's poh/spercJiinus to 

 the Sumatran insect. There can be no doubt that it is merely 



