198 NYMPHALIDiE. SATYRIN^E. AULOCERA. 



In the Western Himalayas A. swaha " abounds during the rainy season, from July to 

 October, from the outer spurs overlooking the Indian plains, for two hundred miles into the 

 interior of the mountain ranges towards the treeless regions of Spiti and Thibet." {Colonel 

 Lang). In Kulu Mr. A. Graham Young writes :— " Not uncommon in its peculiar haunts, 

 grassy hills at 7,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, from June to September." Its range to the east- 

 wards is probably extensive in suitable ground, but we have no certain record of its occurrence 

 in the Eastern Himalayas. 



The next two species have a very different outline, the wings being more rounded and feebler 

 in appearance ; the outer margin of the forewing being decidedly convex. 



189. AulOCera TjrahminuS, Blanchard. (Plate XVI, Fig. 49 J*). 



Satyrus brahtninus, Blanchard, in Jacquemont's Voy. dans 1' Inde, vol. iv, Ins., p. 22, n. 18, pi. ii, fig. 4 

 (1844), male (in part) ; Aidocera scylla, Butler. Ent. Mouth. Mag., vol. iv, p. 122, n. l (\Zi,T \ ; Aulocera 

 werang, Lang, Ent Month Mag., vol. iv, p. 247 (1868). 



Habitat : Himalayas. 



Expanse : 2^4 to 27 inches. 



Description: Upperside blackish brown, paler than in .,4. jwa-^a; the discal white 

 fascia very narrow and attenuated especially on the hindwing. /br^ww^ with an inner white 

 spot, making with the three upper spots of the fascia a group of four surrounding an indistinct 

 oval black spot ; two or three white dashes between the inner spot and the costa, as in A. padma, 

 female. Cilia white interrupted with black at the end of each nervule. The sexual mark is 

 very obscure. The female only differs from the male in the shape of the body, and the outline 

 of the wings being more rounded ; the colour and markings are identical. Underside paler 

 and brigiiter brown, irrorated with ochreous scales and with variable grey, ochreous, and dark 

 brown markings ; the white markings as on the upperside, but on the forewing the subapical 

 black spot is pupilled with white ; and on the himhving are a few variable whitish suffused 

 spots beyond the discal fascia. 



In describing A. brahininus, Blanchard erroneously described the yellow variety of 

 A. swaha as the female of A. bra/i/nitncs ; he gives a figure of the upperside only of a male 

 A. brahminus, and figures of both upper and undersides of males of A. sivaha, while in his 

 description the two are so mixed up that it is difficult to ascertain what tlie markings of the 

 true A. brahminus on the underside really are. So much of the original description as 

 manifestly applies to this species is appended below for reference,t and it seems to us that the 

 typical form of A. brahminus is that which is found at comparatively low elevations about 

 8,000 feet above the sea, in Kulu and Kashmir. This form is nearly as large as A. swaha, and 

 most nearly resembles it on the underside ; but the shape of the wings and the very narrow 

 discal white fascia abundantly distinguish it from that species. The underside is comparatively 

 uniform in colouration, bright brown ; within the discal fascia the whole area of the hindwing 

 is irrorated with ochreous ; and towards the costal margin of both wings are numerous 

 indistinct ochreous and darker brown strire ; beyond the discal band the ochreous stride are 

 less indistinct, and appear on the whole of the hindwing and on the apical half of the 

 forewing, some grey striae also appear in patches at the apex of the forewing, and along the 

 extremity of each nervure of the hindwing, most distinct at the apex and gradually disapjiear- 

 ing along the inner margin ; the hindwing also bears two or three suffused whitish spots 

 beyond the fascia, and beyond them again a submarginal series of very indistinct suffused dark 

 brown spots. 



* Erroneously named A. weranga on the plate. 



\ Sttiynis brahminus, Blanchard. Ue'^ckiption : " Upperside, ^oM 7(i/«^i blackish brown, with a nearly 

 straight oblique transverse white b.Tnd a little beyond the middle; on theyo>-fw/«^ consisting of a series of 

 S))Ots, the first four spots placed in pairs near the costal margin, then two others pyriform pointing outwards, the 

 last qu idrangular divided by the black submedian nervure, and reaching the inner margin ; on the hindiving 

 the band is almost straiRht. narrowed towards the anal angle, and interrupted only by the black nervules. 

 UNUEi(SiDE,_/&r«ii/«^ with a black spot with a white dot in its centre near the apex; against the white band, 

 along the costal margin and at the apex are some small white and brown stria;. The liintiiviiig is similarly 

 striated throughout on each side of the t-ansverse band except that towards the outer margin are some whitish 

 (pacci, and the base is also finely powdered with greyish." {Blanchard, 1. c.} 



