LYCAINID.E. CYANIRIS. tor 
not far from the base. An/enne@ annulated with white. Tufts of greyish-blue hairs at the 
sides of the ¢horax and abdomen. FEMALE, UPPERSIDE, oth wings with the blue colour con- 
fined to the base.” (orsfteld, 1. c.) 
C. puspa in Sikkim does not exhibit quite as great a seasonal dimorphism as obtains in 
C. transpectus, Moore, and C. marginata, de Nicéville. In the rains form the coloration 
of both wings on the upperside is of a deeper purple-blue than in the dry-season form ; 
there is hardly any white discal patch, while in the dry-season form this is as large as in the 
rains form of C. marginata ; the costal and outer margins are also more broadly black in 
the rains form. The hindwing in the rains form has a moderately wide outer black border, 
with the inner edge lunulated ; this border, in the dry-season form, is reduced to a series of oval 
marginal black spots, followed by a fine black anteciliary line. The markings of the underside 
of both wings are fully twice as prominent in the rains form. 
C. puspa is probably the commonest and most widely ranging species of the genus occur- 
ring in India, and, except in Sikkim, where the changes of season are very great, it is fairly 
constant. It is somewhat rare in the outer ranges of the Western Himalayas, becoming 
more plentiful eastwards ; in Sikkim it is one of the very commonest “blues” met with. 
It occurs eastwards as far as Sibsagar in Upper Assam, also in Burma and in the Andaman Isles, 
On the continent of India I have taken it in the Beerbhoom district ; it occurs on Parisnath, 
at Khandalla on the Western Ghats, in North Kanara, in Orissa, Ganjam, in the Nilgiris, 
Rutnagherry, Cannanore, and in Ceylon. Mr. Moore has separated off the Ceylon form under 
the name of /avendularis. Ihave a very large series of this form before me, and cannot find a 
single character by which it can be distinguished from the ordinary Indian form of C. pusfa. 
Mr. Moore has figured a specimen in his “Lepidoptera of Ceylon” as the female of his 
C. lavendularis, which certainly is not the opposite sex of that species, nor does it look to me 
like a female at all. What it really is Icannot say. I append a description of C. lavendularis.* 
Dr, Felder distinguishes this form from Ceylon as follows: ** Differing from the Bengal form 
[of C. puspa] by the blackish-fuscous border of the forewing [on the upperside] being almost 
narrower by half, and the spots before the margin of the underside being smaller.” (f¢/der, 1. c.) 
Mr. E, E. Green informs me that he has bred C. davendularis in Ceylon, and that the larva 
feeds upon the young leaves of Hiftage madablota. 
Mr. Hampson has described (I. c.) a variety of C. puspa, which he calls /iacea, as follows : 
‘*HABITAT: Southern slopes of the Nilgiris, and the Nellyampathy Hills, Cochin. Mate, 
UPPERSIDE, doth wings with no white on the disc. UNDERSIDE, doth wines as in the 
typical C. puspa, Horsfield. FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, doth wings with the whole white 
discal area suffused with blue, more especially towards the base. The seasonal broods do 
not differ.” He also records C. puspa and C. davendularis from the Nilgiris. 
C. dambi, Distant, from the Malay Peninsula and Nias Island is indistinguishable abso- 
lutely from the dark rains form of C. guspa from Sikkim. In any future revision of the genus 
it should, I think, be placed as a synonym of that species. It agrees with C. puspa, var. lilacea, 
* Cyaniris lavendularis, Moore. Polyommatus lavendularis, Moore, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 
fourth series, vol. xx, p. 341 (1877) 5 Cyaniris lavendularis, id., Lep., Cey., vol. i, p. 75, pl. xxxiv, figs. 6, 6a, 
male; 7, female (1881). Hapirat: Ceylon. Expanse: Male, 1°1 inches; female, 13 inches. DESCRIPTION !' 
“MALE. UpPERSIDE, dot wings dark lavender-blue, with an extremely narrow black outer marginal border, 
UNDERSIDE, doth wings greyish-white. Forewing with a dusky-black streak at the end of the cell, a discal 
series of oblique spots, and a marginal row of small spots enclosed by a dentated line. Aindwing with three 
black subbasal spots, somespecimens with a smaller spot at the base of the subcostal nervure and another at 
the base of the first median nervule, a curved series of seven discal spots, and a marginal row of spots enclosed 
by adentate line. FEMALE. Uppersive, 402 wings paler than in the male, and of a purple lavender-blue. 
forewing with the base of the costa and an outer band black. Azxdwing with black anterior border 
and marginal row of prominent pale-bordered black spots. Ciz/ia white, with inner black border.” UNDERSIDE 
as in the male. 
“Allied to P. [= C.] pus, Horsfield, differs from Java specimens above in its uniform colour and 
narrower black borders.’ (A/oore, 1. c. in Lep. Cey.) 
In all the specimens from Ceylon of this species that I have seen, there is a medium-sized patch of white 
irrorations on the disc of both wings whichis not mentioned by Mr. Moore, though he refers to them in describ- 
ing C. placida (vide p. 104, foot-note). The outer black borders to both wings on the upperside of the male 
cannot be called ‘‘ extremely narrow,” in fact there are not many Indian species which have them as broad. As 
figured they are quite as broad as is usual in C. puspa. As stated above, his description of the female does not 
apply to the female of this species, 
