250 NYiMPHALID^. SATYRIN.E. MELANITIS. 



on the forewing on the inner side only of the series of ocelli. The female is similarly 

 coloured and marked, but larger, paler, and with broader wings ; the subniarginal dark lines 

 are also both visible on the upperside in both sexes. 



Z. scylax is rather a rare insect ; it was originally recorded from Sylhet, but has not 

 since been obtained from that district. Mr. Otto Moiler has taken it at moderate elevations 

 in Sikkim, and Mr. de Niceville met with it in the Great Kunjit valley in October, it will 

 probably be found to occur here and there in the lower ranges on the north-eastern frontier of 

 Bengal and Assam. 



The figure shows the upper and undersides of a female specimen from the Great Runjit 

 valley, Sikkim, in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



The remaining genera of this subfamily show an approach to Elymnias in the clothing 

 of the palpi, which are provided with a distinct tuft of hairs at the back of the middle joint, 

 where it lies against the face ; they are all aberrant, in that the palpi in front are not clothed 

 with long porrect hairs, and in that the nervures of the forewing are not perceptibly dilated 

 at the base. In Melanitis and Hipio there are no sexual marks on the wings of the male 

 insect ; but in both Cyllogmes and Pamntirrhcea, there are very remarkable sexual characters. 

 All of them are tropical or sub-tropical insects. 



Genus 2*7.— MELANITIS, Fabricius. (Plates I and XII). 



Melanitis, Fabricius, Illiger's Mag., vol. vi, p. 282 (1807) ; Cyllo, Boisduval, Voy. Aslrol., Lep., p. 140 

 (1832) ; id., Westwood, Gen D. L., vol. ii, p. 360 (1851). 



"Body small, weak; wings large; forewing emarginate along the outer margin ; hind- 

 wing angulated or tailed in the middle of the outer margin. Head moderate-sized, hairy, 

 with a broad short tuft in front. Eyes prominent, naked. Palpi rather short, compressed, 

 broad, obliquely porrected upwards, the tip not reaching to the level of the top of the eyes ; 

 thickly clothed with short scaly hairs lying close together ; the back of the middle joint with 

 a thick tuft of hairs extending from the middle to the tip. Antenn<2 of variable length, 

 slender, terminated by a gradually formed elongate club, scarcely thicker than the rest of 

 the antenna. Thorax rather short, compressed, elevated in its hinder portion. Abdorjien 

 small, or but moderately robust. Forewing, subtriangnlar ; costal margin [more or less] 

 strongly arched, apex rounded ; outer margin [generally, not always] angulated or 

 rather dilated a little below the apex, below which it is emarginate ; inner margin nearly 

 straight. None of the nervures dilated at the base ; costal nervure extending a little beyond 

 the middle of the costa ; subcostal nervure with its branches as in Lethe ; upper disco-cellular 

 nervule very short, oblique, arising near the middle of the wing ; middle disco-cellular equally 

 short more transverse ; outer disco-cellular long, much cur ved, the curve being towards the 

 base of the wing, the extremity directed outwards, and uniting with the third branch of the 

 median nervure at about the same distance from its base as exists between the origin of its 

 first and second branches, the third branch angulated at the point of junction with the lower 

 disco-cellular, beyond which it is nearly straight. Hindwing broadly subovate ; apex round- 

 ed • outer margin scalloped, strongly angulated, or tailed in the middle at the extremity of 

 the third branch of the median nervure. Subcostal nervure nearly straight ; costal nervure 

 extending nearly to the apex ; subcostal nervure branching at a moderate distance from 

 the base (which is rather nearer the body than the prxcostal nervule) ; upper diuo-cellular 

 nervule short, curved ; lozver disco-cellular considerably longer, nearly straight, oblique, 

 uniting with the third branch of the median nervure at a short distance beyond its origin, 

 closing the discoidal cell in an acute point. Forelegs very minute, clothed with short 

 hairs, not forming a brush ; the tibia nearly equal in length to the femur ; tarsus about two- 

 third.s of the length of the tibia. Forelegs of the female rather longer, scaly ; the femur 

 clothed with short hairs beneath ; tibia and tarsus of nearly equal thickness throughout ; the 

 latter obliquely truncate at the tip, with a few minute spines visible at or near the tip beneath, 

 indicating the articulations, liliddle and hindlegs of moderate length, slender, scaly ; tibi^ 

 ■with a very few very slender spines beneath ; tilnal .spurs small ; tarsus with the, articulations 



