158 NY-MPHALID.E. SATYRIN/E. LETHE. 



considerable. The group contains two forms, in one of these which has been separated 

 under the generic name of Taiisima, Moore, with Zf-Z/z^^wwrt as its type the cell in both 

 wings is very broad ; the other has the cell of the forewing much as in typical Lethe. 



146. Lethe verma, Kollar. (Plate X, Fig. 23 S). 



Satynis vcrtna, KoU.nr, in Iliigel's Kaschmir, vol. iv, pt. 2, p. 447, pi. xvi, figs. 1, 2 (1848); Tansima 

 vemta, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 18S2, p. 235. 



Habitat : Upper Tenasserim, Khasi Hills, Assam, and westward through the 

 Himalayas as far as Chumba, and the borders of Kashmir. 

 Expanse : 2 'o to 2*4 inches. 



Description : Male and Female alike, except that the female is rather paler in coloura- 

 tion. Upperside swarthy brown, darkest externally. /vrtTWM^ with a conspicuous nearly straight 

 white band from the middle of the costa, passing just beyond the cell to the first median nervule 

 near the outer margin. Both wings with two narrow pale submarginal lines, bordered and 

 separated by fine blackish lines. In some specimens the hindwing is unspotted, in others the sites 

 of the ocelli on the underside are marked on the upperside by indistinct blackish spots, always 

 most prominent between the median nervules ; these spots again are sometimes white-pupilled and 

 are sometimes perfect ocelli, ringed with yellowish. These variations do not seem to be peculiar 

 to any locality ; the specimens from Chumba show usually one, two, or three white-pupilled 

 spots. A specimen from Shillong shows no white pupils at all, while another from the Sikkim 

 Himalayas has four perfect ocelli, the two between the median nervules being especially 

 prominent ; and lastly in the large series from Simla in Mr. de Niceville's collection many of 

 the specimens have only faint traces of the white pupils, while in some the spots are hardly 

 perceptible. Underside lighter and rather brighter brown. Foieiohig with the white band as 

 on the upperside, but extending a little below the first median nervule ; above it two contiguous 

 submarginal ocelli, black, with white pupil and yellow iris ; above this an irregular whitish 

 streak near the costa ; two greyish submarginal lines widening towards the apex, edged with 

 and separated by fine dark lines. Hindwino with submarginal lines as on forewing, but the 

 outer one more decidedly tinged with yellowish ; six perfect ocelli, that near the anal angle 

 bipupilled ; the first, fourth, and fifth larger than the others, black, with white pupils, and 

 ringed with yellow, then brown, then lilac-grey. Between the ocelli and the base are two 

 narrow lilac-grey lines, that nearest the base nearly straight, the outer one very sinuous, both 

 edged on the side farthest from the other one with darker brown. 



Lethe verma is of much the same style of colouration as L. rohria, but on the upperside 

 it lacks the subapical whitish spots of the forewing, and the band is broader, more oblique, 

 not reaching the hinder angle, and often tinged with yellowish, and on the underside the grey 

 bands of the hindwing are far less prominent, and the ocelli are more uniformly pupilled with 

 a single white dot. But the most marked difference is in the outline of the wings. The fore- 

 wing is broader, the inner margin being much longer, and the hindwing is much rounded, 

 dentate, but scarcely perceptibly caudate. It has a very wide range in the hills of Noithern 

 India, being much more common in the North- West Himalayas, and extending further in that 

 direction than L. rohria does. 



According to Colonel Lang this is an autumnal insect in the North-west Himalayas, 

 affecting shady localities, and trees in preference to rocks, pitching on the trunks of rhodo- 

 dendrons and oaks. His specimens were taken in lower Kunawar at an elevation of 7,000 feet, 

 and at Mussoorie. There is, however, a summer brood, as Mr. de Niceville has taken it 

 then commonly in Simla at about 5,000 feet elevation in forest, settled on the dark rough 

 bark of the deodar, where, till disturbed, it is completely hidden. It was not found 

 in Kashmir either by von Hiigel or by Captain Keed. Major C. II. T. Marshall found 

 it extremely commonly in Chumba in May at Kujjiar. In Sikkim Mr. de Niceville took it in 

 October, and Mr. Otto Moller in November at 4,000 feet elevation. It was taken in the same 

 month at Shillong by Mr- J. P. Cock, and Mr. Ossian Limborg found it at Moolai in Upper 



