RHOPALOCERA MALAY AN A. 101 



abdominal margin pale as in male. Wings beneath a little ilarker and more ochraceous than in male ; 

 other markings generally the same. 



Exp. wings, $ 65 millim. ; 2 63 millim. 



Hab. — Malaj' Peninsula ; Province Wellesloy (colls. Dist. and Saner) ; Malacca (Piuwill — Biit. AIus.) ; 

 Singapore (Westw.) — Java (Westw.*) — Borneo (Druce). 



Gcuiis CHAEAXES. 



Cliara.trs, Ochsenbeimer, Scbmett. Eur. iv. p. 18 (1818); Fcld. Neiies Lop. p. 39 (18G1); Moore, Lep. Ceyl. 



i. p. 28 (1881). 

 Erihdii, Hiibii. Verz. bek. Scbmett. p. 4C (181(3). 



Kulepi», Dalm. iu Billb. Enum. lus. p. 80 (1820) ; Moore, Lep. Ceyl. i. p. 29 (1881). 

 Nymphalis, Westw. (nee. Latr.), Gen. Diurn. Lep. p. 306 (1850). 

 Haridra, Moore, Lep. Ceyl. i. p. 30 (1881). 



xlnterior -wings subtriangular, the costal margin arched and convex, the apex elongately produced and 

 rounded or subacute, the outer margin deeply concave and slightly and irregularly waved, the inner margin 

 nearly straight. First and second subcostal nervules emitted close together near end of cell, third a short 

 distance beyond end of cell and extending to apex, where it is slightly rounded and convex, fourth and fifth 

 bifurcating at about one-third beyond end of cell, the fourth suddenly deflexed and slightly concave near 

 apex. Upper disco-cellular short and angled, the lower slender and curved. Median nervules situate wide 

 apart, the first strongly curved and rounded near base. Posterior wings subovate, the costal margin 

 strongly curved and convex, the outer margin convex, regularly and distinctly waved and produced in 

 more or less well-developed narrow caudate prolongations at apices of first and tbii'd median nervules 

 (in some specimens the last is either but rudimentary or practically o])solete). Abdominal margin strongly 

 and convexly angulated at base, and then obliquely divergent to anal angle. Costal nervure strongly 

 curved and extending to apex ; precostal nervure suberect, its apex more or less curved ; bases of subcostal 

 nervules and discoidal nervule about equally wide apart ; discoidal cell imperfectly closed at ajDex with a 

 more or less aborted and indistinct disco-cellular nervule (in some specimens this is practically obsolete, 

 and the cell completely open). First median nervule strongly curved near base (in some specimens the 

 first and second median nervules are wider apart than the second and third). Body short; thorax very 

 robust ; antennse stout and prominently clavate at apex. 



The genus Charaxcs, from its wide distribution, and the beauty of its species, combined 

 with their strength of wing and body, forms one of the most interesting genera of the 

 Nijmphalbuv. 



One species is found iu Europe, round the shores of the Mediterranean, which has a 

 very close ally iu an Abyssinian species. The genus also inhabits Eastern, Western, and 

 the warmer portions of Southern Africa. It is apparently in Western Tropical Africa that 

 Charaxes is found in its maximum of size, beauty, and abundance of species, though the neigh- 

 bourhood of Delagoa was recently pronounced by Mr. Hewitson to be the " head-quarters" of the 

 genus. t Madagascar possesses some very distinct species, and travelling eastward the genus 



* Gen. Diurn. Lep. p. 30.5. 



\ Ent. Month. Mag. xiv. p. 81. In estimatiuc; what is really the "head-quarters" of a genus, we may apply the 

 axiom of that excellent mammalogist, Mr. J. A. Allen, vi~. : — "The largest species of a group (genus, subfamily, or family 

 as the case may be) are found where the group to which they severally belong reaches its highest development, or where 

 it has what may be termed its centre of distribution " (Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geogr. Sui-v. ii. p. 310). These conditions are, 

 for Charaxes, fulfilled in "Western Tropical Africa. 



Febeuaky 28, 1883. ".i n 



