92 NYMPIIALID.E. MORPHIN/E. AMATHUSIA. 



277. Amathusia "westwoodii, Butler. 



A. amythnon, Westwood, Cab. Or. EiU., p. 39, pi. xix, figs, i, 2, male ; 3, female (1848) ; A. westwoodii, 

 Butler, Ent. Month. Mag., vol. vi, p. 55 (1S69). 



Habitat : Sylhet. 



Expanse: <?, 5'2; ?, 5*5 inches. 



Description : " Upperside fuscous. Forauittg, with an obHque broad fascia, light blue 

 in the m.ale, fulvous in the female. U.^DErside, pale chocolate, with seven transverse, unequal, 

 darker streaks. Ilimku'in;^ with two oval ocelli, having white pupils, and the short tails with 

 two black dots. Male. Upperside, both 7oings blackish brown, the basal portions being the 

 darkest ; ihz forezuing traversed by a broad oblique band of a beautiful light blue, with purplish 

 reflections, commencing close to the costa, a little beyond the middle of the cell, and occupying 

 in width about one-third of the costa, extending obliquely across to the inner [hinder] angle of 

 the wing, terminating near the outer margin, where its upper boundary is the second branch of 

 the median nervure. I!iiid-oiiig\v\i\i the anal margin of a delicate pale lavender grey, fringed 

 with a very thick row of long pale brown hairs ; the anal angle is produced into a rather broad 

 short tail, in which are two small black dots. Underside, bolk juings pale chocolate 

 coloured, with lavender reflections, the forewing traversed by seven, and the hindwing 

 by four richer brown transverse lines, the first crossing both wings near the base ; the 

 second extending from the costa across the discoidal cell of the forewing, and terminating 

 near the middle of the discoidal cell of the hindwing ; the third very slender, crossing the 

 discoidal cell of the forewing beyond the middle ; the fourth extending from the costa of 

 the forewing, and terminating just above the inner [lower] of the ocelli of the hindwing ; 

 the fifth paler and more oblique, extending only across the forewing, crossing the third branch 

 of the median nervure where it is angulated ; the sixth extending from near the apex of the 

 forewing to the outside of the inner [lower] ocellus of the hindwing, beyond which it again 

 reappears for a short distance ; and the seventh very slight and submarginal, extending into the 

 anal tail, and again ascending along the anal margin of the hindwing. The hind-wing is, more- 

 over, marked with two oval ocelli, consisting of a very slender dark brown ring with a white 

 pupil, the remaining space filled with minute irrorations, one near the costal margin, beyond 

 the middle, the other towards the tail, which is marked as above. The body and antenncB 

 are brown. The female differs in having the wings paler brown, with the oblique fascia of 

 the forewing much narrower, commencing outside of the discoidal cell, and of a fulvous colour, 

 marked across within the outer margin by a brown waved striga. This species nearly resembles 

 A. phidippus from Java, but differs in the blue band and the markings of the underside of the 

 wings. It also resembles [superficially] the Javanese Zeuxidia liixerii, but this latter species has 

 the outer portion of the hindwing glossed with blue, a patch of hairs in the middle of the 

 discoidal cell of the same wing ; the underside is also quite different, and the arrangement of 

 the nervures of the forewing places it in a different genus." ( IVestwood, 1. c.) 



This is Westwood's description of the insect, which he also figures under the name o 

 A. amythaon, Doubleday, In 1869 Mr. A. G. Butler pointed out that it was distinct from A. 

 amythaon, and proposed the name ^4. westwoodii io^ '\t \\\\X\ the following remarks: "The 

 figure in the ' Oriental Entomology' represents a species with a much narrower and duller violet 

 band on the forewing, leaving a large brown space at the apex ; the brushes on either side of 

 the body seem also to be unusually developed. There can be little doubt that this is a distinct 

 species-" (^Butler, 1. c.) We have never seen a specimen ; the shape of the blue fascia is quite 

 different from that of A. portheus ; it is much widest at the costa, its outer margin is nearly 

 straight, and it narrows backward to the hinder angle, Westwood in the Gen. D. L. in writing 

 about A. amythaon, though more probably he referred to the species afterwards separated 

 as yf . west'cooodii, says : — "The internal basal portion of the hindwing [in the male] is clothed 

 with long, jet black, velvety hairs, and there is a tuft of elongate brown hairs opposite the 

 middle of the abdomen." It is possible that the secondary sexual characters are the same 

 in the males of all the species of this group, though Mr. Doubleday omitted to mention them as 

 regards A, aviythaon. 



