June, 1906.1 



121 



OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN BUTTERFLIES. 

 BT T. E. BELL. 



[The following interesting notes are extracted from two letters 

 bj Mr. T. K. Bell, the first written June 6th, 1903, from Camp 

 Songhir, to Mr. H. E. Andrewes; the second written a year later (June 

 18th, 1904), to Professor Poulton, from Karachi. They give the 

 impressions of a trained and experienced naturalist, and cannot fail 

 to interest readers of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. Only 

 the notes on Natural History are quoted, and thus the communication 

 opens somewhat abruptly.] 



In Kallima and Junonia among the Np^iphnlincB ; and in Melanitis, 

 and, to a lesser degree in the rest of the Satyrine group of butterflies, 

 the seasonal forms are well marked: -in the dry season form by 

 greatly developed hooks to the apex of the fore-wings, and productions 

 or tails to thehind-wdngs; in the so-called "wet-season" forms, by 

 the presence of ocellation on the under- sides of both wings, which also 

 very often have " ink " markings. The under-side of the dry-season 

 forms is generally plain (as in Melanitis leda) with, very commonly, a 

 straight line down the middle in the manner of a leaf midrib ; this 

 midrib being present only in the dry-season forms.* The " windows " 

 or hyaline spots in Kallima, and white chalky-looking markings are also 

 common ; the former chiefly in the dry-season form, the latter in the 

 wet (in Melanitis asioa for example). The ink-markings and chalk- 

 markings I am certain are supposed to represent mould and lichens on 

 decaying leaves, amongst which the butterflies are generally found 

 sitting ; the hyaline markings are supposed to represent holes in the leaf 

 which Kallima imitates.f As the browns of the leaves vary in shade, so 

 do the browns of the under-sides of the butterflies also vary (approach- 

 ing to grey in the dry-season forms : the leaves at that season being 

 often grey when dead), hardly two in a morning's capture of say 

 twenty specimens being exactly of the same shade. Tell Poulton that 



• In M. leda and M. asica. 

 ,Ji-Z^% ^?r^1. ''are supposed to " in the above sentence were considered to require further exnla- 

 ' 5e unLsed V^ ■ V^°"- /^''Afi H] '1^^ *° ^^^ cominunication, wrote arfolirsU^' As regl^is 

 certain tLtthP«; h " ^f^^^^^."/^* ^hat is what I should always write and say, as I am not It all 

 to insect^rentiLs an^^^ markmgs and mouldy-looking markings) would look the same 



woSd be better. '• ^^ ^^ '''''• ^^""^^P" ''^'^"^'^ probably be taken to be 



L 



