148 NYMPH ALID-E. SATYRIN/E. LETHE. 



132. Lethe mekara, Moore. (Plate XI, Fig. 24 (? ?.) 



Debis mekara, Moore, Horsfield and Moore, Cat., Lep. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 219, n. 454 (1857). 



Habitat : N.-E. India and Upper Tenasserim. 



Expanse : 2'6 to 31 inches. 



Description: "Male: Upperside glossy olive-brown. Hinthving with four round 

 spots encircled with red. Underside with two transverse lines. Forewi/ig with five 

 submarginal pale ocelli. Hindiving with six biown ocelli, encircled by a yellow and 

 then a black line, the centre being minutely spangled with white." {Moore, 1. c. ) 

 Fbmale : Upperside rufescent brown, Foraving with the apical area darker, almost 

 black in a fresh specimen from Tenasserim, crossed beyond the cell by an angulate macular 

 white band, consisting of a short oblique bar from the costa to third median nervule, below 

 which are two triangular spots directed inwards, one on each median interspace : a subapical 

 bifid white spot near the costa. Hindwing as in the male, but rufescent instead of brown, and 

 having five or six round black spots circled with paler red, the two upper large, the third 

 smallest, except when the sixth is present, in which case the latter is the smallest. 

 Underside ochreous. Both wings crossed by a continuous brown subbasal line not quite 

 reaching the margin at either end, beyond which the ground-colour is paler ; a broad median 

 dark brown band sharply defined externally crosses both wings, straight on the forewing, 

 somewhat angled on the hindwing at the middle. Foreunng with the white macular band as on 

 the upperside, cutting through the median brown band in its upper half, the white spots 

 below following its exterior margin ; five or six obscure ocelli, the first and fourth incomplete ; 

 the outer margin brown bearing two ochreous lines finely defined with dark brown. Hitid- 

 wing with six ochreous brown ocelli, complete, of irregular shape spangled with whitish, 

 and circled with yellow and dark brown ; outer margin as in forewing, but the marginal 

 lines clearer and brighter. Except in the absence of the white band of the forewing, and 

 the straighter outline of the median band the underside of the male closely resembles that of 

 the female. 



The underside of this species very closely resembles that of L. chandica, but in the 

 latter species the outer margin of the median brown band on the hindwing is far more 

 sharply angulate extending into a lengthened ppint beyond the cell. L. mekara is found in 

 the same tracts as L. chandica, and extends also into Tenasserim, where it has been taken both 

 by Limborg and Captain C. T. Bingham, but not commonly. Captain Bingham has sent a 

 female from the Donat Range, taken in April, and a male in February. The latter of these 

 two specimens differs from North- Indian examples in having the ferruginous outer area of 

 the upperside of the hindwing brighter in shade, and rather more extended. On the 

 underside the ground-colour is more ochreous. The ferruginous ground-colour of the 

 upperside of both wings of the female is also brighter. Mr. Otto Moller has taken it in 

 Sikkim in April, August, and October. 



The figure is taken from a male specimen from Sikkim. and a female specimen 

 from Sibsagar, in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and shows the upperside of both. 



133. Lethe distans, Butler. 



L. disiansy Butler, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1870, p. 488 ; idem, id., Lep. E.xot., p. 87, pi. x.x.xiii, figs. 4, 

 6 male, t female (1872). 



Habitat : Darjiling. 



Expanse : c?, 275 ; ?, 3-1 inches. 



Description : " Male, allied to L. samio* differing in the more arched costa, and 

 sinuate outer margin of the foreiuing. Iliitdwing above, with dusky-ferruginous outer area, 

 exhibiting five blackish spots, the second the largest, outer margin dusky, especially towards the 

 anal angle. Underside paler than in I., samio ; the prevailing colour pale ochraceous, the 

 central lines much more irregular and wider apart than in L. samio ; the ocelli of the hindwing 

 irregular, with numerous pupils ; the fourth not thrown out of the series as in Z. samio. ^^ 



* Lethe samio, p. 145, ante. 



