56 NYMPHALID^ DANAIN/E. DANAIS. 



Description : " Male : Wings above fuscous. Foiewhigy with the triangular basal area, 

 rufcscent fulvous ; a three-fold subcostal spot (the cellular part and interior rather narrow) 

 two small cellular spots, a small subapical band of five increasingly elongated spots, two spots 

 between the median branches, and a double submarginal series of unequal spots (the inner 

 row shorter), white. Hiiuhving paler, with the cellular area, and increasing subulate spots 

 between the second subcostal branch, and the internal margin and somewhat large spots in two 

 series before the margin, white. Undekside : /v/^iimo paler, of a slightly violet tinge, the 

 [fulvous] patch broader, with the white spots [of the upperside] but larger. Hitidiviug 

 suffused with violet-hoary, with a serpentine gloss in certain positions, with basal spots, two 

 subcostal (the first at the base emitting a line), and others on the border larger than those of 

 the upperside, white ; with the costa fulvous from the base, the radiating spots much more 

 ample, with the upper ones exteriorly stained with ochraceous-fulvous, and with the two sub- 

 costal ones also of the same colour. Female : Wings wider, more deeply coloured than in the 

 male. A local form of D, mdanipptis, Cramer." {Felder, 1. c. in Reise Novara). 



Felder also remarks* that D. nesippus is " a local variety of D. hegesippus, Cramer, which 

 as well as this and D, vielanippus, Cramer, is again a local subspecies of D. lotis. t The 

 Nicobar form differs from all the numerous specimens of D. hegesippus, which I received from 

 Java and Malacca in the narrow, rust-red coloured streaks of the forewing, and the much 

 narrower white radial spots of the hindwing. Regarding the latter difference it is nearer 

 allied to D. melanippits, but the above mentioned streaks in this species are coloured 

 ochre-brown." 



We have a large series of this insect in our collection ; it is an insular form of D. hege- 

 sippus, from which it differs in the almost complete absence of the first band of white spots 

 outside the cell of the forewing, which in D. hegesippus are prominent, and the white streaks 

 in D. fiesippHs are somewhat narrower. Mr. de Roepstorff took numbers of the species at 

 Nancowry in August ; and it is recorded by Felder from Great Nicobar. 



36. Danals melanlppus, Cramer. 



Papilla jiielanlppus, Cramer, Pap. Ex., vol. ii, pi. cxxvii, figs. A, B (1777) ; Papilla Itc^esip^us, Hethst, 

 Pap., pi. civ, figs. 7, 8 (1794). 



Habitat : Nepal, Assam, Penang, Malacca, Java. 



Expanse : 3 inches. 



Description : Differs from D, ge>tutia in Ihe/orewing in not having any fulvous between 

 the second and third median nervulcs, or below the submedian nervure ; the macular subapical 

 white band is less prominent, and the series between it and the cell is reduced to a spot on 

 the costa. On the hindwing the fulvous patch in the cell pales almost to white inwardly, 

 and all the streaks beyond the cell are very narrow and short, the abdominal streaks are also 

 narrow. The marginal and submarginal series of white spots are very small and obsolete, 

 especially the inner series, about the region of the third median nervule. The underside 

 differs from that side of Z>. genuiia in the same way as the uppersides of the two species differ 

 one from the other. 



D. melanippusis a native of Java ; the above description is taken from Cramer's figure 

 of a male specimen from that island. It is certainly very rare in India, if indeed the records of 

 its occurrence are not cases of mistaken identity, though Butler, in his paper on the Malacca 

 Butterflies, gives the above-quoted Indian localities for it. 



Verb, zool.-bot. Gesscllsch. Wien, vol. xii, p. 486 (1862). ♦ From Java. 



