YPTHIMA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 91 



10, Genus: Yptliiiiia Ubn. 



Body delicate and weak. Head small , eye naked and prominent. Antenna rather short , never 

 reaching beyond the middle of the costal margin, hardly incrassate at the apex. Palpi projecting by more 

 than the length of the head, pointed, rough with dense erect hairs as in a brush. Wings very broad in 

 comparison with the slender l)ody, blackish brown above, without markings or with ringed, ocelli, beneath 

 grey with brown striolation and usually submarginal ocelli. The subcostal of the forewing is inflated at 

 the base, the other veins being rather thin. 



Yplhitiia contains small, rarely medium-sized, sombre coloured butterflies, which are found in grass 

 and shrubs, flying low with a slow hopping flight, the wings being alternately opened and entirely closed. 

 Nearly all the species are very common where tiiey occur; thej' frequent meadows, hollow roads, embank- 

 ments, and rocky inclines, being on the wing not only in fine weather, but also when the sky is dull, and 

 even in rainy weather. They rest on grass-halms and low shrubs, the wings ])eing held open in sun-shine. 

 The ?? fly less and must be flushed from the grass and undergrowth. The scaling is extremely delicate, 

 and the wings of caught specimens ai'e very easily torn. Wiiile on the wing they have nearly the same 

 habits as our Coenoniiniplia. They are distributed almost over the whole of the Old World, only being 

 ai)sent from Europe, North Asia, North Africa and a large portion of Australia. More tiian 70 species are 

 known , of which the majority is found in India and tropical Africa. In the Palaearctic Region the genus 

 occur only in Syria, Kashmir and East Asia. 



Y. huebneri Kirl>ti (= philomela Hhn., howra Moore, apicalis Moore, catharina Bllr.) (34a). One of Iniebncri. 

 the smallest species, if not the very smallest. Above dai-k brown, with a larger ocellus on the forewing 

 and two smaller ones on the hindwing. Forewing beneath with one ocellus, hindwing with 4, one being 

 placed near the apex and 3 in the anal region. The forewing, moreover, hears above a distinct submai'ginal 

 line. West Kashmir, throughout the summer, not rare. — The form kasmira Moore (= kashmira Bin(/h.) Iiasmira. 

 (34 a), from East Kashmir, differs externally only in the absence of the dark submarginal line of the upper- 

 side of the forewing and in the somewhat deeper brown ground-colur; Elwes and Edwards, however, 

 separate it as a distinct species on account of the differences in the o""- genitalia. From Api'il to September. — 

 Whether Bingham is right in treating the (Indian) cei/lavini, which has the hindwing snow-white, as a 

 race of hiirlmeri, may here be left undecided. 



Y. asterope Kiwi (= mahratta Moore, alemola Siriiili., complexina Sirinli.) (34 a). On upperside very asterope. 

 similar to the preceding; easily recognized Ijy the underside, on which the strigae are condensed to curved 

 .stripes, one- of them often encircling the apical ocellus forming a kind of loop. Below the ocellus there is 

 a space devoid of striae. The species extends trom Syria over Arabia far into tropical Africa and over 

 Kashmir to China and India, and varies very much according to locality as well to season. In ai). norma norma. 

 Wetifir. even the apical ocellus of the upperside of the forewing is absent. Likewise, the submarginal ocelli 

 of the hindwing beneath are often larger than in our figure or — in the dry-season form — may be re- 

 duced to dots. In the Palaearctic Region — i. e. in Syria, Kashmir, Central and West China — from 

 April to October. In warm districts very plentiful throughout the year. 



Y. baldus F. (34a, b). In this species, which is allied to the Indian }'. philomeJn Jolt., but should baldtis. 

 not be united with it according to Elwes and Edwards, the oceUus of the forewing above has two pupils, 

 and the hindwing beneath bears a close-set row of 6 oceUi. — In ab. argus Btlr. (34 b) the number of ocelli argus. 

 is reduced to 5; in ab. evanescens Bflr. the ocelli, though all 6 are present, are reduced to minute rings evanescent 

 or pupilled dots. — The form prattii Elw. <f- Kdivards resembles ab. argus, but has above a conspicuous, prattii. 

 proximally sharply defined, marginal band. 



Y. baldus is one of the commonest East-Asiatic butterflies. In Japan I have sometimes found 5 or 

 more sitting on one single leaf. Our very extensive material, most specimens being caught by mj'self, 

 exhibits an extraordinary variability, especially in the number and position of the ocelli of the hindwing. 

 These may be reduced to one in single specimens (Leech), and if one wished to give a separate name to 

 every individual aberration, as has been done in the case of many European butterthes, whole pages might 

 be fiUed with descriptions of "new" forms. The area of distribution comprises the whole of Japan, and the 

 opposite portion of China as far as Se-chuen, as wefl as Corea and Amurland. 



Y. zodia Btlr. (34 a). Under this name apparently a number of different species are united. While zoiiia. 

 in the foim albescens J'ouj. there is on the underside of the hindwing a row of distinct ocelli i)upilled with aihescens. 

 pearl-grey, the ocelli are reduced to minute rings or dots in name-typical zodia, so that they are entirely 

 concealed among the grey clouded strigae and therefore at first sight appear to be quite absent, as in our 

 figure and that given by Leech. It is, moreover, very remarkable that zodia has onlj- been found in 

 spring, while all the offer Ypfhimd are on the wing throughout the summer. This renders it very probable, 



