inioPALOCERA MALAYAXA. 61 



possibility of the females luiviug diti'erent liabits to those of the other sex, and therefore being 

 less easily captured. * 



2. Elymnias nigrescens. (Tal). VI., tig. 1 ? , and Tab. IX., fig. 1 ? •) 



Elymnias niijre.iceii.t, Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 5ii<l, u. "2, [il. xlii. f. 1 ; Diucc, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, 

 p. 340, u. 2; Butl., Tmns. Liiiu. Soc. sur. 2, Zool. vol. i. p. 537. u. 1 (1877); Godm. & Salv.. Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1878, p, fi38, ii. 11. 



Male. Wings both above and Ijeiieath reseiiibliiip; tiiose of the male of K. discrqjans, but with the 

 bluish subapical fascia and submarginal spots considerably larger. 



(In some specimens, and notably a liornean one in the collection of the British Museum, the posterior 

 wings have the pale submarginal spots, as found in most females ; these are very faintly visible in ^falaccan 

 male specimens in the same collection.) 



Female. Anterior wings above dark, glossy fuscous, with the basal area more or less suffused with 

 castaneous-i-ed, with the bluish subapical fascia and submarginal spots as in male, but which are much 

 larger and paler in colour. Posterior wings fuscous, becoming paler towards outer margin (the outer 

 margin is sometimes dull ocln-aceous as in the specimen figured Tab. IX., f. 1), and with a submarginal 

 row of four white spots placed between the nervules, of which the first and smallest is placed above the 

 discoidal nervule, and the fourth is situate between the second and thii-d median nervules (a fifth small and 

 faintly marked spot is found in some specimens between the third median nervule and submedian nervui'e). 

 These spots are very inconstant, being practically obsolete in the specimen figured (Tab. VI., f. 1). 

 Wings beneath similar in pattern and coloration to those of the same sex of E. (Uscrcpamt. 



Exp. wings, 3 68 mihim. ; t 2 7-1 to 77 millim. 



Hab. — Malay Peninsula ; Province Wellesley (colls. Dist. & Sauer) ; Malacca (Brit. Mus.) — Billiton 

 (coll. Godm. it Salv.) — Borneo (Brit. Mus.i 



This species or race is one which affords much difficulty and doubt as to its distinctive 

 position. I have neither seen nor received any male specimens from Province Wellesley, 

 though females are not uncommon from that district. The British Museum, however, 

 possesses several male specimens which were collected by Capt. Piuwill in Malacca, but these 

 do not altogether agree with the Boruean typical specimen described by Butler. The difference 

 is principally that of faintness or partial obliteration of the submarginal white spots to the 

 posterior wings, but as this is a variable character in female specimens, collected in such a 

 limited area as Province Wellesley, evidence of which is afforded by the two figures here given, 

 I naturally predicate the same amount of variability in the other sex. Another peculiarity of 

 E. niijrescens is the considerable similarity of the sexes. 



Are E. discrepans and E. nujrcscens but seasonal varieties of one species ? This is neither 

 impossible nor improbable, but can only be denied or affirmed by some local student who will 

 carefully breed both forms. It is the want of this information that makes the present study 

 and classification of exotic Lepidoptera of so empirical a character. 



* Mr. Bates has also stated that iu a number of species of butterflies which he observed on the Upper .\mazons the 

 males were more numerous than the females, iu the proportion of a hundred to one. However, no universal rule ni this 

 respect obtains in the likopalocera, and the whole subject has beeu exhaustively discussed by Mr. Uarwin, in his ' Descent 

 of Man' (2nd edit. p. 250). 



t Butler's type expanded " unc. 2, liu. 10." 



September 30, 1882. it 



