154 LYCAZNIDA. NACADUBA. 
**T took an aberrant male at Ranibagh, Kumaon. The transverse discal band of the 
underside is extremely broad on both wings, united with the disco-cellular streak. This 
aberration occursin many Zycenide. I have a remarkable example of it in a specimen of 
Nacaduba prominens, Moore, from Bassein, Burma, and in one or two specimens of Zizera 
maha, Kollar, and Z sangra, Moore, in which the discal spots are all very elongate below. 
Similar though much rarer variations occur in the Argyunis and Cynthia groups, of which 
I have an example in an Aée//a. One or two species have been based on these curious 
monstrosities.” (Doherty, 1. c.) 
‘*Mr. Distant in his recent work ‘ Rhopalocera Malayana’ has divided the Zycenide 
into three groups, the first of which (Curefaria) lacks ‘filamentous tail-like appendages ’ 
to the hindwing, while the other two groups (Castalaria and Afhnaria) possess these tails. 
This year [1884] I took many specimens of a lycenid in Sikkim in company with 
NV. ardates which differed in no way from that species except in having no tails. On careful 
microscopic examination of these tailed and tailless forms, Ican find no difference between 
them in respect of the venation; and as the markings are precisely similar, I conclude 
that they are one and the same species. Mr. Distant, in forming his three groups (p. 196), 
says that the presence or absence of the tail ‘may prove to be an uncertain and illusory 
‘divisional character,’ as an American naturalist [absolutely erroneously] has recorded that 
certain North American species have a tailless spring brood, and a summer tailed generation. 
In Sikkim, at any rate, both forms occur together, and in equal perfection as to condition. 
‘I have also received both forms from Orissa.” (de Nicéville, 1. c.) 
“Mr. E. E. Green informs me, in a letter dated July 19th, 1886, that ‘ the tailless form 
of 4. ardates differs distinctly in its habits from the tailed form, sporting about in large 
clouds round the Madras-thorn trees in Colombo. The specimens of J. avdates that I catch 
up-country are never seen but singly or in pairs, and have a more hesitating flight. In 
all my specimens the sinuous white lines on the underside are very much broader and more 
distinct than those of 4. ardates. The female also differs in having a very much smaller 
area of blue on the forewing, in some specimens the colouring being confined to three or four 
blue scales only. JV. avdates is on the wing, up-country, during most months of the year, I 
have only been in Colombo during the spring months, when I caught this tailless form, so 
that 1 am unable to speak positively of its period of flight.’” (JZoore, Lep. Cey., vol. iii, 
p- 530). 
‘The tailless form [of 4. avdates], which, in Orissa and the Eastern and Western Ghats, 
is almost as common as the tailed, apparently does not occurin Kumaon.” (Doferty, 1. c.) 
The above extracts are all that have been printed regarding the tailed and tailless forms 
of WN. ardates. They occur together below Masuri, in Sikkim, at Bholahat in the Malda 
district, at Shillong, in Orissa, at Ootacamund, in the Shevaroy Hills, and in Ceylon, and 
from no locality have I received the tailless form without receiving the tailed also, though 
in many localities (the Bombay presidency, Burma, and the Andaman Isles) the tailed form 
alone appears toexist. Whether these two forms are really one or two distinct species can 
only be definitely settled by breeding. Mr, W. C. Taylor of Orissa, Mr. G. F. Hampson 
of Ootacamund, Mr. E. E. Green of Colombo, Ceylon, consider these forms to represent dis- 
tinct species and probably genera ; Mr. Doherty and I hold to the opposite view. Mr. Hampson 
writes me that the tailed and tailless forms appear indiscriminately throughout the year, 
and both swarm in the lower slopes of the Nilgiris. Colonel Lang also writes that “I have 
taken both tailed and tailless . ardates flying together above bushes in September in 
several localities in Kumaon. Khairna on the Kosi, 3,100 feet, Bagheswar, 3,200 feet on the 
Sarju, and in the ‘Great gorge’ of the Sarju, 3,600 feet. I certainly regard them as 
constituting only one species.” 
N. ardates, tailed form, presents considerable variation in the colour of the ground on 
the underside, females especially being sometimes bright golden ochreous. In India it occurs 
almost everywhere except in the desert tracts of Sind, and in the inner ranges of the 
Himalayas. The type specimens were taken at Parl and Pooneh, Kashmir. I do not know 
