1892.] L. dc Nicevillc — Subgenus Stictoploca of the genus Euplcea. 159 



from India. Mr. Moore in his Monograph of tho Euplceina docs not 

 record it from Borneo, bnt describes from thence S. tyrianthina. There 

 is something mysterious about tho latter species. Having originally* 

 described it from Borneo and Sumatra, Mr. Moore, in Lep. Ind., p. 138, 

 records it from Sumatra only. In the original description it is said to 

 be similar to S. harrisii on the upperside of the fore wing, i. e., richly 

 glossed with blue. But in Lep. Ind. it is said to be " without the blue 

 gloss." Again, in Captain Shopland's List of the Butterflies collected 

 by him in Aracan, Burma, p. 4, E. tyrianthina is recorded. I am almost 

 certain that there is no Stictoploea in any part of India that is not blue- 

 glossed, and as Captain Shopland most probably named his specimens 

 at the British Museum, and as none but blue-glossed species occur in 

 India, I think Mr. Moore must be mistaken in saying that the species is 

 not blue-glossed. As originally described Mr. Moore placed it between 

 two blue-glossed species (S. liarrisi and S. pygmcea), and all the indica- 

 tions would go to show that it is a blue-glossed species, in which case 

 it is probably another synonym of E. harrisii. 



E. pygmcea may, I think, be dismissed at once, as it is obviously only 

 a stunted form of E. binotata. I possess from the Khasi Hills an even 

 smaller specimen than the type, with which it agrees in markings. The 

 two commonest forms in the Khasi Hills are E. binotata and E. regina, but 

 the other three described species also occur there, but less commonly. 

 Every gradation exists between the most heavily-marked E. hopei on the 

 one side and the most sparsely-marked E. regina on the other, as represent- 

 ed in these Khasi Hill specimens, and I can come to no other conclusion 

 than that we have here to deal with a single protean species which 

 must stand as E. (Stictoploea) harrisii, Felder. Although this single 

 species has been split up into six by three different entomologists (Moore 

 having described three, Felder two, and Butler one), this by no means 

 exhausts the number of species which might be created on similar lines 

 as there is hardly any combination in the different arrangement of the 

 discal spots of the forewing and the marginal and subniarginal spots of 

 both wings which might not be met with were sufficient material avail- 

 able ; at any rate, in the neai^ly one hundred set specimens and two 

 hundred unset ones now before me as I write, there are numerous in- 

 dividual specimens which are quite as distinct as any hitherto described. 

 And the species is obviously variable throughout its range, though in the 

 Khasi Hills of Assam, where it appears to be commonest, these varia- 

 tions are the most numerous, and comprise the extreme north-westerly 

 (Sikkim) form which seems to always possess the discal spots on the 



* 1. c, p. 320, n. 5. 



