48 NYMPIIALID.1i. DANAIN^. DANAIS. 



the year, and to be met with everywiiere, particularly in gardens, where it is almost the com- 

 monest insect seen. Like the rest of the genus it has a slow flapping flight, and settles fre- 

 quently often at the very end of a dead stick. 



27- Danai3 septentrioaiS, Butler. (Plate VI, Fig. 8 ,J $). 



Danais septentrionis, Butler, EiU. Month. M.->g., vol. xi, p. 163 (1874); D, se^h-ntn'om's, G. Simper, 

 Jourii. des Mus. God., heft xiv, p. 140, pi. viii, fig 7 {iS-jtj) ; Tirumala sepienirio/iis, Moore, Lep. Cey., 

 p. 5, pi. i, fig. 2 (1880). 

 Habitat : India. 

 Expanse : 34 to 4*4 inches. 



Description : " Allied to D. hamala* of McLeay, but constantly much larger. 

 Upperside : .^(?r£M;z';?o- with the spots on the disc smaller. Uindwing olive-brown (instead of 

 chocolate-brown) ; the streaks beyond the cell, between the subcostal and radial nervures, 

 narrower, longer, and not notched externally ; the brown patch in the cell broader (frequently 

 reaching to the radial nervure without a notch) ; submarginal spots more elongated. 

 Underside: Forewing ^p^Xtx than in D. hamata : /i/«^w/«^ more cupreous in tint." (JBut- 

 ler, L c.) 



Z>. septentrionis is the common dark form of blue Danais that has frequently passed as 

 Z>, similis\ in collections in this country. It differs from D, lii/tniace in its usually larger size and 

 in the deeper blue tone of the subhyaline markings, which are also smaller and more 

 distinct throughout. On xheforewing the streaks on either side of the lower discoidal nervule 

 are narrow and pointed externally, the lower one always the shorter, whereas in D. limniace 

 they are broad and truncate ; the basal streak below the median nervure is short, narrow and 

 widely separated from the spot above and the one beyond it, except in some specimens from 

 S. India. On the hiiidiving the subhyaline markings in the cell are reduced to two streaks, 

 with sometimes a minute spot between them at the outer end of the cell. On the underside 

 the marking are similar to those of the upperside, and the cupreous tints of the fore- and 

 hindwings are much darker than in D. limniace. 



This Butterfly seems to be less generally distributed than D. limniace. It has not been 

 recorded from the Andamans or Nicobars, but is common in Tenasserini, in Assam, and in 

 the Eastern Himalayas and tarais ; it is rare in the Western Himalayas ; and appears again 

 in south India and Ceylon, but from the sub-Himalayan tracts on the north to Bangalore on 

 the south we have as yet no record of its occurrence. The south Indian and Ceylon form is 

 much smaller than that from north-east India. Specimens from south India (Bangalore, 

 Kadur district, and Calicut) show an approximation to D. limniace in their much lighter 

 generalt one of colouration and the more or less complete coalescing of the spots and streaks 

 behind the median nervure in the forewing ; but the streaks on either side of the lower 

 discoidal nervule are decidedly proportionally longer, narrower, and externally more pointed, 

 showing that these aberrant specimens really belong to the present species D. septentrionis. 

 In the Simla district Mr. de Nic^ville has taken itraiher sparingly from August to October, 

 and only in beds of streams with richly wooded sides; in one such locality near Kotgarh, 

 elevation about 6,000 feet, it was fairly plentiful in August, 1879. Mr. A. Grahame Young 

 writes that " it very seldom occurs in Kulu, generally in July." In Chumba at 3,000 feet 

 elevation there is a spring brood in April ; and Mr. E. T. Atkinson, C.S., reports having found 

 it common in the lower hills and plains below Kumaon ; and Mr. F. Bourdillon has taken 

 it in Travancore in May. 



The figure shows the upperside of both male and female from specimens from Sibsagar 

 in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



Fifth Group. — Sai.atur-Y : " Forewing lengthened, triangular ; cosla slightly arched ; 

 apex more or less rounded ; exterior margin waved, oblique, slightly convex in the middle ; 



• From Australia. 

 t See No. 8, D, vulgaris. 



