LYCENID. MEGISBA. 61 
the rains, and in the presence of an area of white larger than the black ground-colour, and the 
more or less obliteration of the markings of the underside, in the extreme of the other form which 
occurs in the middle of the dry-season, on which characters the various species described appear 
to have been based. 
In general appearance A/egisba malaya, Horsfield, is very similar to Meopithecops zalmora, 
Butler, but, as indicated above, the outline of the forewing is very different. In markings the 
two species are almost identical, the four black dots along the costa of the forewing on the 
underside being a feature common to both, and absent I think from every other Indian butterfly 
except Zaraka hamada, Druce. With regard to its distribution it occurs in the N.-W. Hima- 
layas, and thence eastwards to Assam, in the Malda district, Calcutta, Orissa, Ganjam, Poona, the 
Nilgiris, Ceylon, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Java, 
Borneo, Sumba, and Sambawa. The sexes are much alike, the female having rather broader 
wings, and the apex of the forewing more rounded, the outer margin is more convex than 
inthe male, The transformations of the Ceylon form of the species are given under the 
description of JZ, malaya. 
645. Megisba malaya, Horsfield. (PLATE XXVI, Fic, 165 ¢). 
Lycana malaya, Horsfield, Cat. Lep. E.1I.C, p. 70, n. 4 (1828) ; Lampides malaya, de Nicéville, Journ, 
A. S. B., vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 58,n. ror (1881) ; id., Wood-Mason and de Nicéville, l. c., p. 249, n. 553 Pathalia 
malaya, Moor™ 1. c., vol. lili, pt. 2, p. 22 (1884) ; id., Doherty, ]. c., vol. lv, pt. 2, p. 134, n. 189 (1886); P.? 
malaya, “Wood-Mason and de Nicéville, l.c., p. 364, n. 108; Megisha malaya, Elwes, Trans. Ent. Soc. 
Lond., 1888, p. 375, n. 239, pl. xi, fig. 1, male ; Megisba thwaitesi, Moore, Lep. Cey., vol. 1, p. 71, pl. xxxiv, 
figs. 3, 34,7mago ; 36, larva and pupa (1881) ; id.. de Nicéville, Journ. A. S. B., vol. liv, pt. 2, p. 46, n. 56, 
(1885); id., Distant, Rhop. Malay., p. 457, n. 1, pl. xliv, fig. 4 (1886); Wegisba sikkima, Moore, Journ. A.S.B, 
vol. liii, pt. 2, p. 21 (1884) ; Pathaiia albidisca, id., 1. c. ; Megisba gunga, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Sog., Lond., 
1885, p. 133, n. 66, pl. ix, fig. 7; Megisba hampsont, Moore, MS. 
Hasirat : N.-W. Himalayas, Kumaon, Malda District, Sikkim, Cachar, Calcutta, Orissa, 
Ganjam, Poona, the Nilgiris, Ceylon, the Andaman and Nicobar Isles, Burma, the Malay 
Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sumba, Sambawa. 
EXPANSE: 6 @, ‘8 to I'2 inches, 
DESCRIPTION : FEMALE. “ UPPERSIDE, both wings blackish-brown, with a large white 
medial area, extending obliquely from the middle of the fore- to the disc of the hind wing ; colour 
more intense on the /orezwizg, the posterior margin of which is surrounded witha delicate white 
cilia, which is continued along the inner border of the hindwing by a series of elongated silky 
hairs. Zaz black, tipped with white. UNDERSIDE, doth wings pure satin white. Forewing, 
near the costa, marked with four regular, equidistant, minute brown dots, and on the disc with 
a short curved line ; towards the posterior margin follows a curved striga, consisting of short 
lineolz or arcs, not touching each other, but disposed obliquely between the nervures ; then, 
parallel with the margin, two narrow strigz, the interior one being undulated, including a 
series of oblong, attenuated, dark brown spots. Hindwing has these strigze and dots continu- 
ed uniformly through it to the anal angle ; anterior to these is an interrupted macular fascia, 
resembling the curved band of the forewing, but with broader lineolz ; then a short, transverse, 
discoidal arc ; with five intensely black spots, two marginal and three basal, the former are 
large, regularly round, of an intense black tint, one is placed near the outer, the other near 
the inner apical angle, opposite to the caudal appendage, being separated from the anal angle 
by two small dots ; near the base are three transversely disposed equidistant dots of an 
intensely black tint.” (Horshed, 1. c.) This description applies exactly to the dry-season 
form of the species. 
‘* LARVA [of the tailless Ceylon form ¢Awaztes?]. light green, vermiform, middle segments 
swollen. Feeds on Sagindacee. PuPa, thick, blunt at the ends.” (AfZoore, 1. c. in Lep. Cey.) 
Mr. Doherty states that “all my Kumaon specimens, as wellas those taken by me in Burma 
and Chittagong, are tailed, while in Orissa, Ceylon, and the Eastern and Western Ghats, their 
place seems to be taken bya tailless form. Of this last, those from Ceylon and the Western 
Ghats are apparently JMegisba ¢hwaitesi, Moore, but those from Orissa and the Eastern 
