LYCANIDA. ZIZERA. 133 
browner, and the markings on that wing are smaller and less distinct. We [the British Museum] 
have two dozen specimens in our collection, varying only in the tint of the upperside in 
the males, which in some examples is silvery blue, in other silvery lilac.” 
The type specimens of this species are said by Kollar to have been obtained at Masuri 
in the Western Himalayas. At Simla, which is about 70 miles as the crow flies from Masuri, 
I know this species well in life, It presents two distinct seasonal forms. Inthe one which 
occurs in the dry-season, the male on the upperside of the forewing has an anteciliary fine black 
line and traces of a submarginal dusky fascia; the female has the basal two-thirds of the fore- 
wing on the upperside blue, the outer third black ; the markings of the underside not promi- 
nent. This form is the ossa of Swinhoe. The wet-season form in Simla has the black 
anteciliary line and the submarginal fascia on the upperside of the forewing in the male con- 
joined, giving a somewhat broad outer dark margin ; the female is black on the upperside, 
sometimes with a few scattered blue scales on the basal area ; the markings of the underside are 
prominent. This form is the chandala of Moore. It is difficult to say from the description by 
Kollar to which form his aka applies. In Sikkim Z. maha, Kollar, is a most variable species, 
The palest form of the male has the upperside pale silvery blue, with a very narrow outer 
black margin; the next darkest form bears an indistinct submarginal black fascia on the fore- 
wing ; the next darkest has this fascia joined to the outer black margin ; the darkest of all has 
the outer third of the forewing and all but the disc and base of the hindwing black. The 
females are even more variable ; the palest being less dark that the darkest male in the fore- 
wing, the hindwing with a marginal series of black spots ; the next darkest has the disc and base 
only of the forewing blue, the hindwing throughout thickly powdered with black scales; the 
next darkest has the base of the forewing alone shot with blue; the darkest form of all has the 
upperside entirely black. The pale forms occur in the dry-season, the dark ones in the rains. 
The colour of the ground on the underside varies from pale whity-brown to darkish brown, 
and there is much diversity also in the prominence of all the spots. In Sikkim, it occurs 
almost throughout the year. In Calcutta, where I know Z, maka equally well, the same 
seasonal dimorphism occurs, and, from the large series of specimens I possess from all parts of 
India, I find that this phenomenon occurs wherever the two seasons, wet and dry, are strongly 
marked. 
Taken in the broad sense in which I view it, Z. maha occurs almost throughout India, but 
neither in Ceylon, the Andamans and Nicobars, nor in Burma. Its range is apparently bounded 
on the west by the Indus, Major Yerbury having obtained it at Campbellpore ; in the Himalayas 
it occurs on the outer ranges only ; to the east it extends to Assam ; and is found throughout 
peninsular and continental India, There is very little doubt in my mind that the ‘‘ Zycena” 
argia of Ménétriés (of which Z. japonica, Murray, and Z, alofe, Fenton, are synonyms), 
which occurs in China, Japan, and Corea* should be added to the synonymy of this species. 
Mr. Leech collected over 200 specimens in every locality he visited in those countries, and 
found the species quite as variable there as it is in India, indeed even more so, as he says that 
the spot in the discoidal cell of the forewing on the underside is sometimes absent, a feature 
I have not observed in Indian examples. I am not aware of any form of Z. maha occurring 
in Central Asia, but it is probable that it is found there. I give in full below the descriptions 
and localities of Z, chandala, Z. diluta, Z. squalida, and Z. ossa, and the remarks on them 
recorded by different authors who have studied these species. 
Larva when full-grown about 4 of an inch in length, green, onisciform, with a dorsal 
line of a darker green than the ground, the entire upper surface finely shagreened, the minute 
whitish tubercles giving out very fine short colourless hairs. No distinctive markings 
whatever. Head smooth, black, shining, as usual. Feeds in Calcutta on Ovalis corniculata, 
Linnzus. PupPA very pale green, attached to the underside of the leaves of the food-plant ; 
finely hairy, without markings, of the usual lyceenid shape. 
The figure shews both sides of a male specimen from Simla in the collection of the Indian 
Museum, Calcutta. 
* J, H, Leech, Pree, Zool, Soc, Lond., 1887, p. 415, n. 56. 
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