284 LYCENIDA. CURETIS, 
Genus 183.—CURETIS, Hiibner. (PLate XXVII). 
Curetis, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett., p. 102 (1816) ; id., Moore, Lep. Cey., vol. i, p. 73 (1881) ; id., Distant, 
Rhop Malay., p. 201 (1884) ; Pedra, Horsfield, Cat. Lep. E. I. Co., p. 123 (1829); Anofs, Boisduval, Sp. 
Gén., vol. i, pl. xxiii, fig. x (1836); id , Westwood, Gen. Diurn. Lep., vol. ii, p. 473 (1852) 
““ FOREWING, subtriangular, cos/al margin strongly arched at base, and then almost 
obliquely straight to afex, whichis either subacute or prominently and falcately acute, owter 
margin concavely sinuate where the apex is produced, z#mer margin concavely sinuate 
in the male, obscurely so in the female; first subcostal mervile emitted at about one-third 
before the end of the cell, second at one-fourth before the end of the cell, ¢hérd and fourth 
bifurcating about midway between the end of the cell and the apex of the wing. HINDWING, 
rounded, the aza/ angle more acute in the male than in the female; [often strongly angled 
at the termination of the third median nervule, and at the anal angle] ; szdcostal nervales 
bifurcating near the end of the cell; [second median nervule given off just before the 
end of the discoidal cell]. yes hairy ; fa/pz porrect, clothed with fime adpressed scales, apical 
joint slender, longer in the female than in the male ; anéenme short, gradually thickened into a 
long apical club ; /egs short, thick, and densely clothed with scales, anterior tarsus of the male 
consisting of a single joint, with an obtuse apical claw and with some fine spines beneath ; 
anterior tarsus of the female five-jointed, with two small apical claws.” (Dzstazt, 1. c.) 
LARVA cylindrical, rapidly increasing in size from the second to the fifth segment, then 
rapidly decreasing to the eighth, the remaining segments equal-sized ; green marked with paler 
and darker shades of the same colour, and with a conspicuous opaque dead white oblique mark 
on each side of the ninth segment; the twelfth segment furnished with two diverging cylin- 
drical fleshy rigid tentacula, from which the animal can evert an equally long process furnished at 
its extremity with a tuft of hairs. Pupa hemispherical, green, covered with tiny depressions, 
with a conspicuous heart-shaped pale ochreous mark on the thorax in the dorsal line. 
‘*The geographical range of Curefzs includes continental India, Ceylon, the Andaman 
and Nicobar Islands, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and probably the whole length and 
breadth of the Malay Archipelago” It occurs also in China and Japan (C. acuta, Moore). 
“This genus exhibits features of structural variability which await the explanation 
of the local biological observer. In outline, the apical angle of the forewing, and the 
anal angle of the hindwing, are either acutely produced or obtusely subacute. There are 
also three forms of sexual dissimilarity ; firstly, in which the female has the pale markings 
whitish, as in C. @sopus, Fabricius; secondly, in which the female pale markings are of an 
ochraceous character, asin C. felderz, Distant, both of these forms having the male entirely 
dissimilar ; and thirdly, in which the male approaches the peculiar markings of the female, as in 
C. sperthis, Felder.” (Déstant, 1. c-) With reference to this latter question, I believe the females 
of certain species of Cuvelis to be dimorphic, as both the white and ochreous-coloured females 
occur with males of C. ¢hefis, Drury, in Calcutta and Barrackpore, while Mr. G. F. Hampson 
has remarked the same thing as regards the females of C. éhetzs in the Nilgiris ; the ochreous- 
coloured form being much rarer than the white. C. savonzs, Moore, which occurs in Cachar, and 
the Andaman and Nicobar islands, appears to possess an ochreous female only, while with regard 
to several other species our knowledge is not sufficient to say if they have one or more forms of 
female. Cvzretzs has one feature not found in any other genus with three subcostal nervules to the 
forewing, v/z.—the terminal portion of the costal nervure reaches the outer margin de/ow the apex 
of the wing in both sexes, in al! the other genera it reaches the costa at or just before the apex ; 
the third subcostal nervule being very long and terminating at the apex in this genus. 
The species of the genus Cwuretis are amongst the most beautiful and the largest 
of the Zycenide. The males of all the species are of a rich glossy coppery-red colour 
on the upperside, with a more or less broad margin of black, which in some species is 
so broad that the red is reduced to a moderate-sized patch in the middle of each wing, 
and in others is so narrow or even linear that both wings are red with a mere edging 
of black, The underside is pure silvery-white, with sometimes some very indistinct bands 
