178 NVMPIIAI.ID.E. SATYRIN^. AMECERA. 



a dark ochreous-black exterior border, the inner margin of which commences one-third before 

 the apex and curves half round a subapical white-pupilled black spot, and thence attenuates to 

 posterior angle [with a prominent jirojection inwards between the second and third median 

 nervules], I/hiihving with a broad ochreous brown exterior border with waved inner margin, 

 contiguous to which are three black spots, each with a white pupil, the middle spot being 

 the largest, and the anterior the smallest. The female differs in having two subapical spots 

 and a broad disco-cellular patch on the fornviug, and a fourth smaller anterior spot on the 

 hhidwing. Underside. Forrcvbig paler ochreous, markings as on upperside, but greyish 

 brown, and with three narrow brown transverse streaks within the cell, and an irregular streak 

 beyond it ; two bright white-pupilled subapical spots, the upper one small, beneath which is 

 a white dot, all being encompassed by a lirownish line. Hindjuino with greyish-brown base 

 and exterior border, the disc being whitish grey, the division marked by a dark brown irregular 

 zig-zaw inner line and a wavy outer line ; within this discal portion is a series of six round 

 bright black spots, each having a white pupil (the basal two), and encircled by a yellow and 

 a narrow brown outer ring, the second and third anterior spots being small, the others of 

 equal size." 



«« ^r^/,>. — The nearest ally to this species is P. er'ersniantn, Eversmann, from Central Asia, 

 figured in the Moscow Bulletin for 1847, vol. ii, pi. ii, figs. 5, 6." [Moore, I.e.) 



In some specimens the male also has on the upi^erside two subapical spots on the /ore7t?'f/g 

 and four submarginal on the hindwing ; the base and inner half of the latter is suffused with 

 brown. In the female the suffusion of brown on the hindwing is darker and more extended, 

 the only yellow left being diffused rings round the spots and a small patch at the end of the 

 cell. 



Pararge casJiintrensis is a rare and very local butterfly ; the first capture of it was by the late 

 Captain Reed at Goolmurg, an elevated plateau about 9,000 feet above the sea in Kashmir. 

 Mr. Robert Ellis has since taken it in Pangi in Jidy and August at considerable elevations ; 

 it was also taken by Mr. Atkinson in Kashmir, but no other records of its capture can be 

 traced. It is a well-marked conspicuous butterfly that would not fail to attract attention if 

 met with. 



Genus 16.— AMECSHA, Butler. (Plate XV.) 



/Iw^f^r^, Butler, Ann. and Mag. of Nat Hist., third series, vol. xix, p. 162, pi. iv, figs, i, 1 a (1867), 

 structure. 



Description : " Fo>'am7tg -wiih the outer margin less wavy, and not angulate at the apex. 

 Hindwing more elongate, the outer margin scarcely sinuate ; otherwise as in Lasio?n>nata. 

 New-ation as in Lasiommata, but the cell of the hindwing shorter. AntenncB more elongate 

 and slenderer, the club pyriform and compressed. Palpi with the terminal joint more 

 elongate." [Butler, 1. c. ) 



In this section Butler has included Hipparchia baldiva, but as its eyes are quite destitute 

 of hairs it belongs to, and is here included in, the genus Hipparchia restricted. He also 

 includes Pararge eversinanni, which is a true Pararge, very closely allied to P. caskmirensis. 



It is doubtful whether the name Amecera will not have to give way to Lasiomtnata, of 

 which also megara was the type. Mr. Butler has restricted Lasiomtnata to the section of 

 which (vgeria is the type, and this arrangement we retain, as it has been followed by 

 Mr. Moore. 



The genus Amecera is spread over Europe and Western Asia, extending to England on 

 the one hand, and to the Eastern Himalayas on the other. The typical species is A. meg(S7-a, 

 an English butterfly, with the wings tawny fulvous, marked with smoky brown. Four 

 species have been described from India, all of them restricted to the mountain ranges on the 

 north and north-west frontiers. One of them, A. schakra, is very distinct, and is a dominant 

 species, common over a very large extent of country ; the other three are all more or less 

 specialised local forms of A. mara of South Europe, the claim of at least one of them 



