( AGO ) 



interjjnulatioiis tui-ii up ratlier fVonuciitly. Tlic liido-Miilu^au specimens are 

 f^eiierally dark-tailed, tiiose from the Pa])nan Subregion as a rule yellow-tailed, but 

 the subspecies from Lifu, Loyalty Islands, is again dark-tailed. 



A more than usual amount of nonienclatorial muddle attaches to tliis species. 

 Boisduval named in manuscript as con/thus a small species dealt witli in the 

 present Revision as pi/rrliosticta. Walker adoi)ted Boisduval's name, but apiilied 

 it to a motley of at least three widely different species, treating as " var. /8 " 

 what IJoisdnval had named corytJiKs in the Museum's collection. This was in 185(1. 

 Moore, in 1857, in the Catalogue of the Lep. of the East India Company, ]). 2ii'2, 

 applied the name of con/thus to individuals from Java, Canara, Darjeeling, and 

 Ladakh, probably a mixture of species, and added a manuscript name of Horsfield's, 

 M. arcuatum. In 1875 15oisduval published his notes made about thirty years 

 before at the British Museum, regardless of which species Walker had actually 

 described, taking it for granted that Walker had in every case api)lied the 

 manuscri])t name to that species for which it was originally intended by Boisduval. 

 In this work corythus is the insect described shortly afterwards by Butler us 

 pyrrhosticta, agreeing with Walker's " var. /3." of corythtis. In the Revision of 

 the Sphiny/c/ae in 1877 Butler says that the labels to yilia and corythus were 

 transposed in the cabinet ; but as he gives under g/lia only the locality Silhet 

 (Stainsforth), which Walker mentioned under corythus var. and not under gilia, 

 Butler was evidently wrong in the supposition of the labels having become changed, 

 i.e. the alteration of the labelling carried out by Butler was erroneous. Fnrtljcr, 

 the specimens first enumerated by Walker under corythus were described by Butler 

 in 1870 as pro-cima, coming from Canara and Ceylon, to which localities he added 

 in 1877 Silhet, having, however, described in 1875 as luteata auother Silhet 

 individual of the same species. Thus Butler restricted corythus to the two Java 

 individuals "c. /'." under Walker's description. In Hampson, 1892, the name of 

 corythus appears as a synonym of a species totally different again from all the 

 forms covered l)y Walker's name corythus. This is not all — the Java insect to 

 which Butler restricted the name of corythus in 1875, was shortly before wrongly 

 identified and described by Boisduval as Walker's ditergens, and then renamed 

 promcthcus, Boisduval always adding his beloved manuscript names to the names 

 already published by others. 



Now to which insect must Walker's name oi corythus be restricted? Certainly 

 not to his " var. /3," as the variety cannot be typical. Then there remain two 

 species. The second was named jtromctheus by Boisduval, and the first proxima 

 by Butler shortly after. Walker's description agrees with both sjjecies and others 

 besides except in one jwint, namely in the I'emark that the luteous band of the 

 hindwing is occasionally interrupted. This character only tits the species of which 

 various subspecies have subsequently been described as jiylene, luteata, Julci- 

 caudata, etc., etc., and not the species called by Boisduval prometheus and treated by 

 Butler as corythus. Besides, Ceylon and Canara are the first localities mentioned 

 by Walker, which alone would settle the question for us in this sense that corythus 

 of Walker (185G, Ceylon, Canara) and Butler's proxima (1875, (,'anara, Ceylon) 

 are identical. 



a. M. corythus platyxanthuui subsp. nov. (Pi. IV. f. 1, S). 



S ? . Similar to ^f. corythus luteata, but the yellow band of the hindwiug 

 broader, the black border narrower at anal angle ; the basal area below shaded with 



