RHOPALOCERA MA LAY AN A. 24S 



Male. Wings above dark shining cffirnlean-bluc ; anterior wings witli llie costal margin and the 

 apical half of wing— inwardly angulated at median nervure and narrowed into a marginal fascia beneath 

 lower median nervule— blackish ; posterior wings with the costal margin and apex broadly and the 

 posterior margin narrowly blackish, tail-like appendages blackish, with their apices white; al)dominal 

 margin greyish-brown. Wings beneath dark grc^yish : anterior wings with an outer discal series of linear 

 fuscous or blackish spots placed between the nervules and a snbmarginal series of rather larger but much 

 paler spots— these are sometimes almost obsolete ; the outer margin also darker ; posterior wings with two 

 similar series of spots, the inner and darker series longer, more continuous and waved towards anal angle, 

 where it is duplex, a third marginal series of spots, two lilack marginal spots inwardly broadly margined 

 with ochraceous, situate respectively between the second and third median nervules, and at anal angle ; 

 some scattered bluish scales between lower median nervule and submedian nervure ; the extreme outer 

 margin blackish ; fringe of both wings brownish-grey. Body and legs more or less concolorous with 

 wings. 



Female. Wings above very pale violaceous-blue ; anterior wings with the costal and outer margins 

 (broadest at apex) dark fuscous ; posterior wings with the basal third clothed with fine long greyish hairs, 

 and with the costal margin broadly dark fuscous, a submarginal row of fuscous spots {sometimes obsolete 

 towiirds abdominal margin, as in the speeimen^n<jured), and a marginal row of larger fuscous spots {somctiiiies 

 fused and amalgamated toieards apex into a nuo-f/inal fascia), apex of abdominal margin fuscous, the spot at 

 anal angle containing some scattered bluish scales, and more or less distinctly inwardly margined with 

 ochraceous. Wings beneath as in male. 



Exp. wings, <y and 2 , 35 to 38 millim. 



Hab.— Continental India; " N. India," sic. (Horsf. & Moore).— Ceylon (Thwaites— coll. Dist.).— 

 Burma; Moulmein (Brit. Mus.).— Malay Peninsula; Malacca (Pinwill— Brit. Mus.).— .Java (coll. Horsf.). 



The larva and pupa of this species, as observed in Java, have been figured by Horsfield,* 

 who thus describes the first :—" The larva is considerably distended anteriorly, excavated at 

 the sides, contracted behind and transversely swelled at the segments." It feeds " on a species 

 of Lorauthus, which grows parasitically in great abundance on the mango and other fruit trees 

 surrounding the viUages of the natives." Dr. Horsfield also remarks, " In the imago state the 

 peculiarity chiefly exhibits itself in the antennae, which are abruptly terminated by a short 

 point." I am unaware whether this may be a peculiarity confined to Javau specimens, but 

 have certainly been unable to see it in Ceylonese examples, at least as prominently as figured 

 by Horsfield. 



2. Tajuria mantra, f (Tab. XXI., fig. 11 S .) 



Pseudohjc(£)ia iiiantra, Felder, Wien. Ent. Mou. iv. p. 39G, n. 9 (18G0). 

 Myriiia Mantra, Feld. Eeise Nov. Lep. ii. p. 238, u. 270, t. 30, f. 14 (1865i. 

 hikiiis 2Iantni (var. ?), Hewits. 111. Diurii. Lep. p. 4G, n. 20, t. 20, f. 24 (1805). 



* Cat. Lep. E. I. C. t. iv. f. 5, 5 a. 



f The name •'mantra" used by Felder for tliis species denotes that part of the "Veda" which has been defineil by 

 Prof. Monier AVilhams as '-prayer and praise, embodied in texts and metrical hymns" ('Hinduism,' p. 18). It becomes iv 

 question whether it is justifiable, either in f^ood taste or as a precedent to be followed, that ecclesiastic terms belonf;ing to 

 other religious systems than our own, should thus be tised as specific names for insects. It cannot for a moment be believed 

 that those alone born in Christian countries are to be the zoologists in the future, and there can be little doubt of the reception 

 that would be accorded in this country to specific names of insects, proposed by a Hindu, ou ecclesiastical terms used by the 

 Christian Chm-ch. English entomologists, in particular, have not hesitated to ruthlessly use the most sacred names in both 

 Buddhism and Hinduism for this purpose (Islam has somewhat escaped), and the practice logically culminated, when an 

 American entomologist used in a similar manner the most sacred name in Judaism, to the scandal of those wlio did not 

 hesitate to employ, and cheerfully use, the terms of concepts in other religious systems, 



August, 1884. 3 r 



