RHOPALOCERA MALAYAN A. 243 



The species of this genus have hitherto been phicod iu the genus Aphmnis, the type of 

 which is the African A. orcas, Dru., which has five subcostal nervules to the anterior wings,* 

 and consequently is quite distinct from Spuulasis, which has but four. The late Mr. Hewitson 

 pointed out the difference in the neuration, f and though Mr. Moore, in his ' Lepidoi)tera of 

 Ceylon,' describes the genus Aiihna'us on the characters of Ceylon species, and correctly gives 

 the type of the genus as A. orcas, he must have been unable to examine a specimen of that 

 species. 



There has been, however, no necessity to make a new generic name, as Wallengren 

 proposed his Spindasis for the species hitherto known as AphiKin.'i uatalensis, D. & H., and under 

 that generic name the Eastern species will find their natural classification. 



This is an Ethiopian as well as an Oriental genus, it being particularly well represented 

 in Africa. Only one species from the Malay Peninsula is at present known to the writer. I 



1. Spindasis syama. (Tab. XXIII., figs. 8 & 9 2 .) 



Amhh/jiiHlia Siiama, Horsfield, Cat. Lep. E.I. C. p. 107, u. 39 (1829). 

 Amhhjpddia Si/ma, Westw. Geu. Diurn. Lep. p. 478, u. 20 (1852). 



Aiihiuriis Si/aiiiii, Horsf. & Jloorc, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C. i. p. 38, u. 50 (1857); Hewits. 111. Diiirn. Lep. 

 p. Gl, t. 25, f. 7 (18C5). 



Male. Wings above fuliginous-browu, shaded with bright violaceous, this shading being principally 

 on the inner basal area of the anterior wings, and on the inner basal half of the posterior wings ; anal 

 angle of i^osterior wings reddish-ochraceous, with two black marginal spots marked with some silvery 

 scales, the first and smallest situate above the submedian nervure ; tail-like appendages blackish, with 

 their base ochraceous and their a2:)ices greyish-white. Wings beneath very pale ochraceous. Anterior 

 wings with five blackish fascise with silvery centres, the first crossing cell a little beyond middle and 

 extending to costal margin, the second commencing on costa at about end of cell and directed outwardly 

 to near posterior angle, the third short, straight and compressed on each side near middle, extending from 

 costa to a little beneath lower discoidal nervule, the fourth directed inwardly and extending from costa to a 

 little beneath upper median nervule [tlic third and fourth in some rurieties meeting as ^7^ Jig. 8), the fifth 

 submarginal and almost, or sometimes quite, meeting apex of second near posterior angle ; a longitudinal 

 black streak with a few silvery scales extending nearly along the upper basal half of cell, a broad fuscous 

 streak beneath basal half of cell, a narrow outer submarginal blackish fascia and extreme margin of the 

 same colour. Posterior wings with four blackish fascise with silvery centres ; the first and basal more or less 

 fractured, the second crossing disk of wing extending beneath the third median nervule (where it is always 

 more or less indistinct), and deflected upwards to abdominal margin, third shortest extending from costa to 

 beneath upper median nervule, the fourth and outer fascia commencing beneath apex, almost lost in the 

 anal-angular ochraceous spot and deflected upwards to abdominal margin ; some blackish basal streaks and 

 spots, a narrow posterior submarginal blackish fascia, and the extreme margin of the same colour. Fringe 

 of both wings greyish. Black anal-angular spots as above. Body above more or less coucolorous with 



* This is a very rare species, and I am mueli indebted to botli Prof. Westwood of Oxford, aud Mr. A. G. Butler of tlie 

 Britisli Museum, for kindly examining the neuration of the same for me. Mr. Butler also informs me that DxTiiy's figure of 

 the species is a bad one. 



f IU. Diurn. Lep. p. 00 (1865J. He describes A. orcas as having four, and the Synma group as having three " branches 

 from the subcostal nerviu-e"; but as pointed out {antca, p. 11)7) Mr. Hewitson estimated the number differently to the method 

 pursued here. 



J Mr. Butler has included in the " List of Butterflies collected by Capt. Pinwill in Malacca" (Trans. Lum. Soc. ser. 2, 

 Zool. vol. i. p. 549, n. 1), Aphtiaus lohita, Horsf. ; but although I have received a long series of A. sijinna from the various 

 districts of the I'eninsula, 1 have never met — as yet — with an exanijile of ^. lohita. It is easily recognised from A. syaitiii, as 

 pointed out by Horsfield, by the fasciie on the under surface of the wings being " wholly without any black marginal thread." 



