NYMPHALID^. SATYRIN^. NEOPE. 169 



162. Zophoessa yama, Moore. (Plate X, Fig. 21 s .) 



Z. yama, Moore, Horsfield and Moore, Cat. Lep. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 221, n. 458 (1857). 

 Habitat : Mussoorie, Kumaon, Bhutan, Sikkim, Khasi Hills, Sylhet. 

 Expanse : 2 '8 to 3-4 inches. 



Description: " Differs from Z. j«r<z in having no caudal appendage to the hindwing. 

 Underside having on the foiei.viug three pale bands crossing the discoidal cell, and four 

 submarginal ocelli : the kiiuhving having the basal portion irrorated with minute pale dots, 

 the transverse streaks more oblique, and the ocelli, seven in number, are black, encircled with 

 a pale and then a dark line, centred with a minute white dot, that at the anal angle being, as 

 it were, geminated. Cilia seen from upperside yellowish- white. Sexes alike." {^Muore, I.e.) 



Z. yama, of all the species of Zophoessa yet known, has the underside the most profusely 

 variegated ; but it lacks the silvery purplish- white markings of Z. sura, being only here and 

 there scarcely irrorated with that colour ; and on the upperside of the forewing the ochreous 

 spots on the costa are much more prominent than in Z. sura, more especially so in specimens 

 from Shillong. In specimens from Sikkim the ocelli on the underside of the forewing show 

 through on the upperside slightly. In specimens from the Khasi Hills, they are even 

 more distinct ; while in those from Mussoorie they sometimes do not show at all. It is not un- 

 common in the Khasi Hills and Sikkim, where its colour is velvety chocolate-brown, the buff 

 cilia being very broad and conspicuous. It extends westwards in the hills as far as Mussoorie, 

 where its general colouration is totally different in tone, though the markings are identical 

 in arrangement. Specimens from Mussoorie are much paler and of a yellowish-brown, smaller 

 in size, and with the buff cilia inconspicuous. On the underside, too, the markings are paler and 

 less conspicuously defined. This is no doubt a local variety, resulting from the drier climate 

 of the western hills ; there are analogous variations dependent on comparative humidity of 

 climate in every branch of the animal kingdom. The female has the wings slightly broader, 

 and is generally paler and duller in colour, the markings of the underside especially being 

 duller and less distinct, but in other respects identical with those of the male. 



Z. ya}iia occurs in the Khasi Hills in May, and at Mussoorie, at 7,000 feet elevation, in 

 June ; Mr. E. T. Atkinson also records it from the outer ranges of the Himalayas in Kumaon. 



The figure shows the upper and undersides of a male specimen from Shillong in Major 

 Marshall's collection. 



Genus 12.— NEOPE, Butler. (Plate XI.) 



iV(»(7/^, Butler, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., third series, vol. xix, p. i65, pi. iv, fig. "ja (1867), striicture' 

 Enope, Moore, Horsfield and Moore, Cat. Lep. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 228 (1857) ; Blaiuiida, Kirby, Syn. Cat. D. L., 

 Supplement, p. 699 (1S77). 



" Wings large :y&;-«<yw^ elongate, subtriangular ; costa rather convex; outer margin 

 denticulate ; inner margin somewhat convex, rarely straight ; nervures scarcely tumid at 

 the base, arranged as in Lethe, with spots and ocelli as in Lasiojnmata. Forewiug with the 

 shape and neuration of Z^Mi?, &c. Underside with submarginal ocelli, basal area scrawled 

 with irregular streaks and bands. Antemm with a gradually formed club." 



" The species composing this genus seem very closely allied to some of the species of 

 Lether (Butler, 1. c.) 



Kirby has recently proposed the name of Blanaida for this genus, on the ground 

 that Neope is preoccupied ; but the nearest approach to preoccupation is in the genus Neopus 

 of the Raptorial suborder of Aves, and as there is a sufficient difference between IVeofius and 

 Neope for all practical purposes, there does not seem to be any justification for suppressing the 

 latter. 



This is a small genus ; only eight species are known, of which five are found in Indian 

 limits, and the remainder in China and Japan. The Indian species are confined to the 

 Himalayas, extending into Burma, and the genus is unrepresented either in the plains of 

 North India or in the South. The Neopes are forest-loving insects, not common anywhere 

 apparently except in Sikkim. 



