LYCANID, -APHNEUS. 365 
DESCRIPTION. MALR, ‘ Forewing comparatively narrower and more acutely pointed 
at the apex than in A, ¢ri/urcata, Moore. . Hindwing shorter, but longer hindwards, and the 
exterior margin even and less convex anteriorly. UPPERSIDE, do/h wings dull bluish-brown. 
Forewing unmarked. Azndwing with an indistinct dull ochreous anal spot speckled with 
grey and black. UNDeRsIDE, doth wings dull pale brownish-ochreous, the transverse bands 
Nearly obsolete, being indicated by very slender indistinct silvery-speckled lines.. Hindwing 
with the anal lobe black-spotted.” (AZoore, 1. c.) FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, doth wings brown, the 
basal areas sprinkled with plumbeous-silvery scales. /ovewzng with a moderate-sized discal 
crange patch, bearing two or more fuscous spots. //éndwing with the anal lobe dull red. 
UNDERSIDE, both wings as in the male. , 
In the above description, Mr. Moore does not state the séx he is describing, but it must 
have been amale. Its nearest relation is A. e/ima, Moore, certainly not A. trifurcata, that 
species having very prominent markings on the underside. ; 
On the 13th June, 1879, I obtained a good series of this species, all at rest on white 
thistle heads, at Mogul Maidan, Kashmir. A malesent to Mr. Moore for identification was 
returned marked “ 4. uniformis,” a female ‘A. elima,” showing how close these two 
species must be, as their describer identifies as distinct, specimens of opposite sexes of evidently 
one species taken on the same day in one spot. It is probable that in Kashmir this species 
is single-brooded, the hot weather being too short to allow of a succession of generations 
with corresponding variations to mature, Todeal with a species like this presents great 
difficulties froma systematic point of view. It is probably quite constant where it occurs, 
though hardly distinguishable from some specimens of A. e/ima ; the latter species again running 
by insensible gradations into typical A. zcé’s, these variations being probably due to season 
and weather. A bi-specific nomenclature would seem to be the only way out of the difficulty, 
and this species might stand as Aphneus (ictds) uniforms. 
921. Aphneus rukma, de N. (PLATE XXV, Fic. 145¢). 
A. rukma, de Nicéville, Journ. A. S. B., vol. lvii, pt. 2, p. 281, n. 10, pl. xiv, fig. 6, male (1883). 
Habitat: Sikkim. . 
EXPANSE: 6, 1°3 inches, 
DESCRIPTION: “ MALE. UPPERSIDE, forewing black, the base and lower discal area 
slightly iridescent deep blue of the exact shade and extent of A. mzpalécus, Moore ; a small. 
ferruginous spot near the base of the second discoidal interspace. Mindwing with the costal. 
margin broadly, outer margin narrowly black, abdominal margin pale fuscous, the rest of 
the wing iridescent deep blue; anal angle ferruginous, bearing two black spots sparsely 
marked with metallic silvery scales; ¢az/s black, tipped with white. UNDERSIDE, forewing 
pale chrome-yellow, the inner margin below the median nervure fuscous, beyond and below 
the first median nervule whitish ; a very short black streak from the base of the wing touch- 
ing the costal nervure posteriorly ; asmall oval spot beyond in the discoidal cell ; another 
crossing the cell from the base of the first median nervule to the costa ; an oblique discal 
band from the middle of the costa towards the anal angle; a figure of eight beyond, parallel 
to the discal band and touching the costa; two oblong spots beyond touching in the middle,. 
not reaching the discal band, but forming with it a disconnected Y-shaped figure ; a submar- 
ginal catenulated band, ending posteriorly in two black spots in the submedian interspace— 
all these spots and bands of a darker chrome-yellow than the ground, broadly outwardly 
defined witb black ; a marginal fine black line more or less broken up into spots. Azndwing 
pale chrome-yellow ; the spots and bands arranged as usual, coloured as in the forewing, 
the discal and submarginal bands where they are recurved to the abdominal margin marked 
with metallic silvery lines ; the anal lobe marked much as on the upperside, but the ferruginous 
colour more inclined to orange,” 
