8S NYMPIIALID.^i:. NViMniALID/E. NEPTIS. 



" Allied to Neptis zaida, but may be known from that and other allied species by the 

 markings on the upperside being /«;-^ white." (^Moore, 1. c.) 



The Indian Museum, Calcutta, possesses specimens of both sexes (which do not differ 

 from one another) from the Kulu Valley taken in May by Mr, A. Graham Young, and there 

 are others from Kunawar in Colonel Lang's collection. Mrs. Deane took a single female 

 at Chini in June. The markings of the upperside are more usually just tinted with ochreous, 

 the forewing has three very minute streaks divided by the veins on the upperside of the 

 forewing below the costa within the subapical spots as in N. radhci and N. manasa ; there 

 also a marginal pale line which becomes very distinct below the third median nervule. It 

 appears to be a rare species, and confined to a very limited area, 



368. Neptis amlsa, Moore. 

 N. amba, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., iSsS, p. 7, n. 11, pi. xlix, fig. 4 ; idem, id , in Anderson's Anat, and 

 Zool. Researches, p. 924 (187S). 



Habitat: N.-W. Himalayas; Nepal, Yunan fJ/ut?/-^/ 

 Expanse : 2*4 to 3*0 inches. 



Description: "Male. Upperside smoky-brown; markings white. Forewing with 

 long discoidal streak indented at the extremity of the cell ; two oblique spots near the apex, 

 and four reversely oblique spots to middle of posterior margin ; an indistinct marginal and 

 submargnial black line, Hiitdzving with rather broad inner band and narrow brownish- 

 white outer band ; marginal and submarginal line darker. Underside dark ferruginous ; 

 markings as on upperside ; but the marginal and submarginal lines, base of costal margin, 

 and streak near base of hindzmng sXzo white." {3foore, 1. c.) 



There are numerous specimens of N. amba in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, all from 

 the Himalayas west of Nepal, one of which from Masuri has been identified by Mr. Moore. 

 It differs from the description above, and also from Mr. Moore's figure in having four instead of 

 two oblique spots near the apex of the forewing, the upper one often divided by the subcostal 

 nervules.* There is also a submarginal white line between the two black lines described by 

 Mr. Moore. The type specimen is from Nepal. We have no specimens from Nepal, but 

 those we possess from the Western Himalayas show very little variation in the markings ; 

 they all have the additional spots in the discal series, and differ markedly from Mr. Moore's 

 figure also in having the discal band of the hindwing very broad, and all the markings pure 

 white, and but for Mr. Moore's identification of one of them as A'', amba, I should not have 

 included them with the specimen he has figured. The additional white subbasal band on 

 the underside of the hindwing allies this species with N. carticoides, but the width and 

 extent of the white markings render A'', amba, as now identified, conspicuously distinct from 

 all allied species. Mr. Moore's figure would lead to the conclusion that the Nepal race is 

 nearer to A'', carticoides of Sikkim than to N. amba of the Western Himalayas, the specimen he 

 records from Yunan is almost certainly N. carticoides, and it will probably turn out on further 

 research that N. carticoides is really synonymous with N, amba, and that the Western 

 Himalayan species here called N. amba requires a new name. The female has the forewing 

 broader, the outer margin straighter, and the apex less produced than in the male. It is a 

 common species in Simla, and there are specimens in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, from the 

 Kulu valley and Masuri, and in Colonel Lang's collection from Kunawur. Mrs. Deane took 

 it at Chini in June. 



369- Neptis amTJOldeS, Moore. 

 N. amhoides, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 241. 



Habitat : Ruttun Pir, Kashmir ; Kangra district. 



Expanse: ^,2*1; ?, 2*25 inches. 



* The fourth spot in this series in the lower discoidal interspace completing the broad discal series is a con- 

 spicuous feature ; it is present in all our specimens, and it is this that gives the very white appearance by which 

 N, amba is so easily recognised. 



