NYMPHALID^. NYMPHALIN^. MELIT^EA. 25 



Zey to tlie Indian species of lAelitsea. 



A. Underside with silvery markings. 



309. M. siNDURA, Himalayas. 



310. M. AMCENULA, Ladak. 



B. No silvery markings on the underside. 



a, Upperside of forewing with a prominent black marginal band, enclosing a series of ferru- 



ginous lunules. 



311. M. BALBITA, Western Himalayas. 



b. All the markings very small or obsolete, especially on the hindwing ; no distinct 



black marginal band on the upperside of the forewing. 



312. M. ROBERTSi, Afghanistan, Punjab. 



309- Melitsea sindura, Moore. 



M. sindura, Moore. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1865, p. 496, n. 64, pi. xxx, fig. 2. 



Habitat : Kongma Pass, North-West Himalayas ; Native Sikkim. 



Expanse : i'25 to i'55 inches. 



Description: Upperside. "Wings ferruginous ; costa and base of wings blackish. 

 Forewing with narrow marginal band, two marks within discoidal cell, and two transverse 

 series of discal spots black ; a series of black-margined, pale-centred submarginal lunules. 

 Hindwing with the marginal black band and submarginal lunules as in forewing, also a series 

 of three small black spots from anal angle. Cilia white [pale ochreous], spotted with black, 

 Body ferruginous black. Underside, forewing clear ferruginous, yellowish about the apex, 

 with the discal markings as above, but less defined, and a marginal series of yellowish lunules. 

 Hindwing with ferruginous base, yellow disc, a pale ferruginous submarginal and marginal 

 band (each with bright ferruginous spots), and an intermarginal series of yellowish lunules. 

 Sexes alike." [Moore, 1. c.) 



IVoce. — "This is very local, apparently. I have seen it but in one place, on one acre of 

 ground I may say, on a patch of very stony pasture-land, at 16,000 feet altitude, on the ' Kong- 

 ma' pass, leading from Kunawur into the Chinese province of Gughe in Tibet : ground not 

 clear of snow for more than four months in the year. Here one day I saw a great number 

 of these insects flying, an icy-cold wind blowing all the time, so that the insects were blown 

 about, and never more than an inch or so above the ground. No other Lepidoptera near them 

 did I see but a stray Colias edusa, and several Parnassii coursing up and down the snow-banks 

 a little higher up." (^Colonel A. M. Lang, K.E., 1. c.) 



In Colonel Lang's collection are several of the specimens above referred to, which were 

 taken in July. The female is larger and paler than the male, all the markings more prominent. 

 On the underside of the hindwing in both sexes there is a subbasal band, a spot in the cell, an 

 angulated discal band and submarginal lunulated band all silvery, defined outwardly with a 

 fine black line, not mentioned by Mr. Moore. Captain H. J. Elwes and Mr. Otto Moller 

 have both obtained numerous specimens of this species through their native collectors at high 

 elevations in Native Sikkim, or Chumbi in Thibet. Both above and below these specimens 

 are rather darker and heavier marked than those taken by Colonel Lang, but are otherwise 

 indistinguishable. 



3I0' Helitsea amoenula, Feider. 



M. atnoenula, Feider, Reise Nov., Lep„ vol ii, p. 392, n. 575 (1867). 



Habitat : Western Himalayas, Ladak, Rupshu, Pangchog, Marka. 



Expanse : Not given. 



Description: "Male. Upperside fulvous, the c/Z/^i sulphurous [yellow], in the fore- 

 wing more distinctly divided with black, with the exterior margin rather broadly blackish- 

 fuscous, inwardly with a series of yellowish lunules, outwardly with [a series of] cinctures 

 divided with black ; forewing with the base, and the basal two-thirds of the costal margin 

 powdered with ochraceous, with a cellular mark, another disco-cellular, a spot more or less 

 annular below the former, often another minute one beyond it, an angulate macular discal 



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