68 NYMPHALID.E. NYMPHALIN^. JUNONIA. 



but paler, the larger discal spot on the hindwing being compressed, irregularly subovate and 

 bipupilate, the lower spot usually larger than above ; marginal and submarginal lines as above, 

 the inner terminating in a small black spot at the anal angle. Body and legs more or less 

 concolourous with the wings." {Distant, 1. c.) 



Larva (figured byHorsfield from Java, where it feeds on a species of yusticia) is pale brown, 

 the segments more or less marked with black, and bearing numerous many branched spines. 

 Head ochreous, the body with a dorsal line of the same colour. Pupa ochreous, marked and 

 spotted with black, abdominal segments above with tubercular projections. 



y. asterie is a common butterfly throughout the tract of heavy rainfall, and is abundant 

 where it occurs ; it frequents gardens and glades in jungles, but shuns the bare open plains, 

 For further remarks, see the next species, y. almana. 



345- Junonia almana, Linn^us. 



PapUio almana, Linnxus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, vol. i, p. 472, n. 89 (1758); idem, id., Syst. Nat., ed. xii, vol. 

 i, pt. 2, p 769, n. 132 (1767) ; id., Fabricius, Syst. Ent., p. 490, n. 204 (1775) ; idem, id., Sp. Ins., p. 69, n. 311 

 (1781) ; idem, id., Mant. Ins., vol. ii, p. 34, n. 362 (1787) ; idem, id., Ent. Syst., vol. iii, pt. i, p. 89, n. 278 (1793) ; 

 id., Cramer, Pap. Ex., vol i, pi. Iviii, figs. F, G (1775) ; id., Herbst, Pap., pi. clxxii, figs, i, 2 (1794) ; id., Dono- 

 van, Ins. China, pi. xxxvi, fig. 2 (1798) ; Vanessa almana, Godart, Enc. Meth., vol. ix, p. 313, n. 36 (1819). 

 Habitat : India, Burma, Andamans, Java, China. 

 Expanse : 2'i to 26 inches. 



Description : Male and female. May be known from J. asterie by the apex of the 

 forezving being usually much more truncate, the outer margin angled at the third median nervule, 

 and the anal angle of the hindiviiig produced into a longer blunt-tipped tail. On the underside 

 all the markings are less prominent, the discal ocelli very obscure, often obsolete. 

 According to Mr. A. Grote,* the " larva feeds on Gloxinia and Osleckia." 

 This species occurs throughout continental and peninsular India and in the outer Himalayas 

 up to about 6,000 feet elevation. It is not recorded from Ceylon or the Malay peninsula, but is 

 common through Assam, Sylhet, Cachar to Burma, Mergui and Upper Tenasserim. It occurs 

 in the And.imans, in Java and China, and wherever met with is a common insect. 



It will be seen from the localities quoted above that except in Ceylon, the Nicobars 

 and the Malay peninsula, y. almana is found wherever y. asterie occurs ; and from 

 observations I have made on the time of appearance of the two forms, I have found 

 that J. almana is the prevailing form in the dry season, while y. asterie abounds in the rains, 

 the times of appearance and periods of existence occasionally overlap somewhat ; a worn 

 y. almana may be found early in the rains, or a y. asterie now and then in the early 

 winter, but speaking generally the summer brood is J. asterie, and the winter brood is 

 y. almana, and it is very probable that further investigation will reveal that they are 

 merely seasonal forms of one and the same species. The two forms are variable also both in 

 outline of the wings and in the markings of the underside : in some specimens of y. asterie 

 the forewing is almost as truncate, and the hindwing as prominently tailed as in y. 

 almana, while the ocelli on the underside are very inconstant ; they vary much in size, 

 and in some specimens they are so pale and obscure as to be barely traceable, and it is 

 difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which form these intermediate specimens belong. 

 The absence of J. almana from the localities noted above, if it be a fact, might be 

 accounted for by the seasons in those parts being more equable and more uniformly moist 

 throughout the year ; but the question of the distinctness or otherwise of the two forms can 

 only be satisfactorly settled by a series of experiments in breeding them. Colonel Swinhoe re- 

 marks that y. almayia\ " is common everywhere [in Bombay and the Deccan] all the year 

 round, J. asterie is common in the latter half of the year. I am convinced that although the 

 types of each are so different they are both one and the same insect, one being the normal 

 and the other the dimorphic form, and I have a long series of examples showing every stage of 

 variety between the two." 



* I'roc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1865, p. 761. t Proc. Zool. Soc- Lond , 1885, p. 128. 



