3i8 NYMPHALID;E. ACRiEIN^. PAREBA. 



in the North-West Himalayas one species, A. vesta, is decidedly local. Their flight is slow and 

 sailing, they frequently settle, often at the end of a branch, stick, leaf or other conspicuous 

 position, and appear to be quite unmolested by birds. Mr. de Niceville has experimented with 

 the carnivorous Mantis on many of the Butterflies believed to be ofi"ensive to birds, and he 

 has found A. viola is the only Butterfly which all the species of Mantis he has experimented 

 with refuse to eat. The abdominal plate or pouch with which the females of both the 

 Indian species are provided, is also found in the genus Parnassitts, a genus of the subfamily 

 Papilionifia:. 



The Acrccitta: are disting\iished by their elongate wings, the hindwing being free from the 

 abdomen along its inner margin and not channelled to enclose it. They are closely related 

 to the Ht'liconina; of America. The subfamily originally contained but a single genus, Acrcea, 

 which Doubleday in the Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera divided into six well-marked sections, 

 and these, so far as the Indian species go, appear to be worthy of generic separation. The 

 general characters of the genus Acraa are those of the subfamily ; the special characters of the 

 sections represented in India are given in the following key. 



Besides the six sections of Accra only one other genus of the subfamily has been 

 recognized (Alana, Boisduval), which contains a single species (A. amazoula) from South 

 Africa. 



Neither of the Indian species have any sexual tufts or patches on the wings of the 

 male insect. 



Eey to the Indian Genera of ACB^IIT^. 



A. Palpi very small, compressed, not rising to the level of the top of the eyes. Antennas with a 



gradually formed club. Hindwing with the first subcostal nervule given off from the subcostal 

 nervure some distance beyond the cell. 



XLII.— Parbbi. 



B. Palpi long, porrected forwards, rising to the level of the top of the eyes. Antennas with an abruptly 



clavate flaltened club. Hindwing with the first subcostal nervule given off from the subcostal 

 nervure before the end of the cell. 



XLIII.— Tblchinia. 



Genus 42.— PAREBA, Doubleday. 

 Acrtea, section v. Pareha, Doubleday, Gen. D. L., vol. i, p. 142 (1848). 

 " Palpi small, the second joint but little swollen, scaly and hairy. First subcostal 

 nervule of the forevving thrown off' at [just before] the end of the cell. Discoidal nervure of 

 the hindwing thrown off from the subcostal nervure considerably before it divides." (Doubleday, 

 1. c.) 



This genus contains but a single species, which occurs all along the Himalayas, and from 

 Assam to Burma, and again in Java. As far as we know, it is only to be found in or very 

 near to hills. 



297. PareTaa vesta, Fabricius. 



Papilio vesta, Fabricius, Mant. Ins., vol. ii, p. 14, n. 130 (1787) ; id-, Donovan, Insects China, pi. xxx, fig. i 

 (1799) ; Acrcpa vesta, Godart, Enc. M^th., vol. ix, p. 233, n. g (1819) ; id., Horsfield, Cat. Lep. E. I. C. pi. iii, 

 fig. 21. lar-ja (1829) ; Papilio tcrpsichorc, Cramer, Pap. Ex., vol. iv, pi. ccxcviii, figs. A— C (1780) ; Tetchinia 

 issori'a, Hubner, Verz. bek. Schmett., p. 27, n. 220 C1S16) ; Acr^ra anomala, KoUar in Hugel's Kaschmir, voL 

 iv, pt. ii, p. 42S> pl' i". ^gs. 3, 4 (1848). 



Habitat : Himalayas, Assam, Upper Burma, Java. 



Expanse : 20 to 3'5 inches. 



Description : Male and female : Upperside, both wings fulvous, with the veins 

 black, and more or less broadly bordered with black irrorations. Foraoing with the costa 

 and outer margin black, the latter bearing a marginal series of eight fulvous oblong spots, one 

 in each interspace, except the last, which has two. A hook-shaped black mark in the cell, the 

 disco-cellulars broadly defined with black, beyond which is a black streak from the costa to 

 the second median nervule, angulated inwards at the third median nervule ; a black mark 

 near the base of the fust median interspace, and another in continuation below the first median 



