NVMPIIALID.E. SATYRIN.E. IIIPPARCHIA. 1S7 



179- Hipparchia tholophassa, iiiibner. 



Eumenis tltch-phassn, Hiibner, S;uiunl. l'..\. ScliiiKlt , vul. ii, pi. Ixxxv, fifis. 1—4 (181C— 1824); Satyriis 

 thelcf-hassa, Heriich Schaflor, Schmctt. Kur., vol. i, figs. 178, i7y (1844) ; figs. 305, 306 (1846); H i//>arc/ii,i 

 thclephassa, T. Kliig, Symb. I'hys., pi. x.xix, figs. 1—4 (1832) ; Satyrtis anl/icha, iJoisduval.Icones, vol. i, p. 204, 

 pi. xli, figs. 3, 4 (1832), female ; iJem, id., Doublcday, Hcwitson, Gen. D. L., pi. Ixv, fig. 3 {\Zi\), female. 



Habitat : Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Persia, Syria, Russia. 



Exi'ANSE : <?, 2-1 to 2-3 ; 9, 24 to 27 inches. 



Description : Male. Uiu'erside brown, with a bioad subniarj^inal fulvous band on 

 both wings. Foiaoing with the inner margin of the band nuicli angled at the third median 

 nervule, the outer edge liinulate and parallel with the margin, bearing an upper and lower black 

 spot with minute white pupil ; and two white spots between them. The sexual maik extends 

 into the discoidal cell, black overlayed with brown scales. Himhuitig with the fulvous band 

 abbreviated, its outer edge lunulate and parallel with the margin, its inner edge irregularly 

 dentate and less sharply defined ; bearing a single minute black spot with white pupil 

 on the lower median interspace and sometimes a white dot on the upper median interspace. 

 Undekside. Foregoing with the fulvous band, ocelli and white dots as on uppersidc, but with 

 the middle of the disc also fulvous, extending into the cell, the costal margin broadly pale 

 brown, mottled and streaked with whitish and dark brown. Himhving whitish, clouded with 

 pale brown and mottled with darker brown, the subbasal line scarcely traceable ; the median 

 rather more defined and indistinctly margined outwardly with a whitish diffused fascia, the 

 submarginal line most distinct and defined with whitish outwardly ; a minute subanal ocellus 

 as on upperside. Female as in the male, but lacking the sexual black patch in the cell ; 

 and with the inner margin of the fulvous band much more angulate. 



The figure by Westwood siiows the middle of the.disc on the forewing fulvous on the upper- 

 side also, but none of the specimens we have examined correspond with it in this particular. 



//. thcL'phassa has as yet only been found within our limits in the assigned districts of 

 Beluchistan now administered by the British Government. It was taken at Chaman in May, 

 at Gwal in May, and at Quelta in May and September, by Lieutenant-Colonel Swinhoe, and 

 in September and October by Colonel A. M. Lang at Quetta at 5.500 feet elevation, the 

 Hanna Valley 6,500 feet, and the Kawas Valley 8,000 feet elevation, " where it was not 

 uncommon among boulders in the gorges of the high valleys." (Colonel Lang), At Kandahar 

 Major Roberts notes that it is " very common at the beginning and middle of May in the nullas 

 and on the rocky slopes at the foot of the hills, resting under the shade of rocks and stones 

 during the heat of the day, and flying about in the early morning and evening, when it is easily 

 captured. In June scarcely a .specimen was to be found." (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 18S0, p. 405). 



A large Hippaichia of this type is found commonly in Persia ; it differs from H. thck- 

 fhassa in lacking the white dots on both sides, and more notably in having the submarginal 

 fulvous band on the forewing distinctly macular, the patches about the upper ocellus being 

 widely separated from those about the lower ocellus by the brown ground-colour ; it seems 

 to be just intermediate between IL. semele and //. thelephassa. 



Hipparchia beroS, Herrich-Schaffer, is like a desert form of H. thelephassa, all the colours 

 faded and vvashed with cinereous ; but in a variety figured by Lederer in the Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 Belg., vol. xiii, p. 26, pi. I, fig. 3 (1869-70), female, under the name //. bero'e, Freyer, the band 

 is fulvous and the white spots on it are present in both wings, and it is only to be distinguished 

 from H. thelephassa by the band on the forewing being restricted and not reaching either the 

 costa or the inner margin, and divided at the upper median nervule. 



Ilipparehia felopea, Kliig, which is found in Persia, appears to belong to this group. 

 Lederer figures a variety of it named caneasica (Wien. Ent. Monatsch., vol. viii, p. 168, 

 pi. iii, fig. 5 (1864), 7nale), from the Caucasus, which appears to differ from 11. thelephassa in 

 having the band on the forewing incomplete and macular, not extending above the lower 

 discoidal nervule except for a single elongate spot, on which the upper ocellus is placed, and 

 which does not extend towards the costa ; on the hindwing the band is well defined, widening 

 regularly to the first median nervule where it abruptly ends. The white dots between the 

 ocelli of the forewing are large and prominent. 



