LYCE NIDA, APHN.EUS. 383 
HasitaT: Sind, Kutch, Afghanistan. 
EXPANSE: @, '10 to 1°45 ; #2, 1'O to. I°5 inches. ete. 
DESCRIPTION : MALE. UPPERSIDE, 60¢h wings fulvous, dusky at the base and on the 
costa. Cilia whitish. Forewing with all the bands of the underside represented above, but 
they are dusky-coloured, the outer and inner margins also dusky, the apex with a small! 
suffused whitish patch, sometimes obsolete. Az#dzwing with two discal more or less inter- 
rupted dusky bands from the costa, a submarginal band (sometimes macular) from the costa 
to the first median nervule, the outer margin with a series of conjoined rounded black 
spots, sometimes a complete band, the anal lobe small, black, with a few silvery spangles. 
UNDERSIDE, d0th wings chalky-white, all the bands and spots ochreous outwardly 
narrowly defined with black and sparsely spangled with silver in the middle; a_ series 
of short linear black marks on the margin between the veins, a fine anteciliary black 
line. Forewing with a small streak at the base of the cell, a band across its middle, 
joined to a basal fuscous patch below the median nervure, an oblique discal band, two 
short bands from the costa beyond forming a V-shaped figure more or less disconnected, a 
submarginal catenulated band. AZzudwing with some small basal marks, three subbasal 
spots in a straight line, the two upper ones sometimes joined, a discal continuous band 
recurved upwards to the abdominal margin, with a ring-spot on the margin anterior to 
the posterior end of the band, a short sinuous band beyond from the costa to just below 
the third median nervule, a sinuous submarginal band recurved and broken at its lower 
end, anal lobe with a prominent black spot, sometimes surrounded with — ferruginous. 
FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, oth wz#gs somewhat darker and duller-coloured than in the male, 
the wings rather broader. UNDERSIDE, doth wings as in the male. 
‘** Allied to S. [=A.] acamas, Klug, and to S. efargyros, Eversmann. Larger ; the male 
differing from both on the upperside in the whitish costal area of the forewing, and both 
sexes differing in the darker bands on both wings. Underside chalky white instead of 
cream-colour, all the markings darker and edged with black; the submarginal band ‘of 
the hindwing is not angulated as in S. acamas and the hindwing itself is longer.” 
‘“*This is the representative of S. acamas in N.-W. India ; Colonel Swinhoe obtained 
it at Karachi and Chaman; Major Yerbury says that itis common at Campbellpore. At 
the time when [I identified itas S. [=4.] acamas, we did not possess that species, and I 
supposed that the differences which existed in Klug’s figures were due to inaccuracy of 
delineation, The Zeller collection has, however, now put us in possession of specimens 
of the true 5S. acamas and the allied S. esargyros, and I am able to see at a glance that here 
we have a series of those constant local races which constitute the only existing species 
in the Order Lepidoptera, but which, for that very reason, are always as thorns in the sides 
of those who believe that the species of Buiterflies are widely distinct.” (Butler, 1. C3) 
As I have only Klug’s figure of A. acamas* to guide me, I cannot form a competent 
opinion whether or no 4. Ayfargyrus is a species distinct from it or not. Certainly the latter 
shows considerable variation in details in its Indian range; it is often smaller than 
A. acamas, the whitish costal area on the upperside of the forewing is quite absent in some 
specimens, the bands of the underside are often more or less macular, and_ their black 
edging is often obsolete, all of which are characters Mr. Butler relies on in separating the 
two species. 
Mr. Butler records it from Chaman, South Afghanistan, also from Cambellpore in the Punjab 
and several places in its neighbourhood ; Colonel Swinhoe records it from Karachi and Hydrabad 
in Sind, and from several places in South Afghanistan ; and Mr. E. H. Aitken from Bhooj, 
Kutch. It is evidently strictly confined to the desert regions of the North- West, Afghanistan, &c. 
Lh ah cot ara ere and Arabia Felix ; Dr. Lang gives Syria, Persia, and the Steppes to the south and 
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