NYMPHALID^. NYMPHALIN/E. HESTINA. 59 



oblique transverse angulate discoidal streaks black, and one connecting the first and second 

 median nervules ; the margin and the apex blackish, including three subapical [discal ?] and 

 eight submarginal greenish-white spots ; seven or eight marginal dots ashy and subobsolete. 

 Hindwing with a blackish scaly costal spot, the external margin blackish, and bearing eight 

 submarginal white spots, and eight white marginal dots. Body black, head spotted with 

 white, thorax striated with ashy white, abdomen white at the sides, anttnnce black. Under- 

 side whitish-fuscous, the anal area of the forezvinq bluish, the veins in the discal area and the 

 discal fascioles black, other markings as on upperside but pale olivaceous ; body black, spotted 

 with white; haustellum yellow." (Butler, I. c. ) 



According to Butler's figure this species differs from H. ptrsimilis in the following points 

 only, the pale streaks in the upper median and submedian interspaces of the forewing, and those 

 in the median interspaces of the hindwing are not divided, and consequently there are no 

 detached pale spots in those interspaces within the submarginal series. The type insect was 

 in a collection made in various localities in the Eastern Islands, and the Continent of India ; 

 another specimen in the Hope collection is said to be labelled "East Indies," so the exact locality 

 is unknown, but a specimen seen by me from Mr. Hocking's collection made in Kangra has been 

 identified by Moore as belonging to this species, and, as previously stated, it lacks the special 

 characters noted above which alone separate the species from H. persimilis. Kangra is the most 

 westerly known range of this genus, and it is in all probability the locality from which all three 

 specimens were obtained, and bearing in mind the fact that the differences such as they are, are 

 the variations which would naturally be exhibited by H. persimilis in its most western range, 

 and that some specimens of H. persifnilis from the districts immediately east of Kangra do 

 exhibit partial variation in this direction, I cannot avoid the conclusion that H. zella is merely 

 a variety of H. persimilis, but I keep it distinct for the present until more specimens can be 

 examined. Mr. Hocking records H, zella as occurring in the " Kangra district generally." 



Mr. Butler in describing it wrote : " This beautiful little species is most nearly allied to 

 H, mena of Moore ; it is probably intermediate between that species and the assimilis of 

 Linnaeus, and is smaller than any species yet described." 



The female of H. zella I have never seen, nor can I get access to any published descrip- 

 tion of it ; from information kindly supplied to me by Mr. Butler, I gather that it resembles in 

 essential features the female of H. persimilis, the insect described and figured by me as H. 

 s^?//<j, female,* turns out on closer examination to be a male, and is probably referable to 

 the next species. 



339. Hestina mena, Moore. 



H. mena, Moore, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., third series, vol. i, p. 48, n. 3 (1858;; Diadema 

 mena, Butler, id., vol. xvi, p. 398, n. 3 (1865): Hestina zella, de Niceville, (nee Butler), Journ. A. S. B., vol. lii> 

 pt. ii, p. 6s, pi. i, fig. 2 (1883), 7nale (nee femalej. 



Habitat : North India, Kujiah. 



Expanse : <? , 3*'; inches. 



Description : »' Male. Upperside pale greenish-white. Foreioing, with all the veins 

 broadly black ; exterior margin black, with a marginal row of small spots, submarginal and 

 third row of large and less distinct spots. Hindtoing, with all the veins black, also a 

 marginal row of ill-defined, black, lunular spots- Underside paler greenish-white : all 

 the veins of both ivings less black than the upperside, with an indistinct marginal row of 

 spots. Body longitudinally striped black and white. Allied to H. [Euripus] consimilis, but 

 may be distinguished by its larger size, and by the absence of the broad, transverse, spotted 

 bands." {Moore, I. c). 



Mr. Butler apparently overlooked the description above by Mr. Moore, for in 1865 he 

 redescribed the species as one of "four new Species of Butterflies in the Collection of the 



* Journ. A. S B., vol. lii, pt. ii, p. 65, pi. i, fig. 2 (1883) 



