NYMPHALID.E. NYMPIIALIN.E. NEPTIS. 105 



markings are very prominent, especially the discal band of qiiadiate spots on the hindwing. I 

 took this species at Kujiah near Dalhousie, and at Ulwas, Chumba, in May; Mr. A. Graham 

 Young obtained it in the Kulu Valley in April and May ; it occurs also in Simla, Kasauli and 

 . Masuri. Major Marshall possesses specimens from Kashmir, 8,200 feet, taken in June; 

 Chumba in May and June ; Pangi, 8,000 feet, in July ; and Chini in June. 



The three last species are very distinct, and differ from all the others in having the discal 

 spots of the forewing arranged in pairs, each pair of spots being well-separated from the 

 pair or pairs next it. The discoidal streak is narrow and short, the spot beyond far distant 

 from the outer end of the discoidal streak, very broad and short. The white markings iu 

 N. jumbak are usually and in N. ophiana occasionally tinged with very pale green. 



400. Neptis ophiana, Moore. 



N. ophiana, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1872, p. 561 ; id., Distant, Rhop. Malay., p. 153, n. 6, pi. xvii, 

 fig. 12(1883); N. colwueUai^sxt), Moore (w<r Cramer), Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 185B, p. 7, n. 13, pi .\lix', 

 fig. s, male s.n<i female ; idem, id., 1865, p. 763; id,, Butler, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., Zoology, second series^ 

 vol. i, p. 542, n. 6 (1877). 



Habitat : Eastern and Southern India, Burma, Malay Peninsula. 



Expanse : 2'5 to 3-0 inches. 



Description : •' Male. Upperside dark fuliginous black, markings white. Fornmng 

 with very narrow terminally-indented discoidal streak, and large broad triangular spot beyond ; 

 a curved discal transverse series of five [or six] spots, the two upper obliquely before the apex, 

 the next pair on the middle of the disc, the lower one of which points to the anf^le of the win^ 

 the fifth elongated and extending along posterior margin [sometimes with a smaller one above it]; 

 a submarginal interrupted row of whitish lunules with black borders. Hindiving with broad 

 inner band ; and a less prominent submarginal series of six rather quadrate spots. Under- 

 side brownish-ferruginous, markings as above, white, prominent. Foreiuing with three 

 marginal series of lunules. Hitidioing with bluish-white basal streak, subbasal fascia, a 

 narrow transverse median discal and a marginal lunular bluish-white line ; median band 

 terminating on third [? second] subcostal vein. Allied to N. columella, Cramer." {Moore, 1. c.) 



Mr. Distant remarks that " Malaccan specimens agree thoroughly with the type of the 

 species [A^. ophiana\, save that the discal spots are somewhat larger, and the basal streak 

 is entire, though in other specimens from the same locality it is abbreviated and somewhat 

 cleft. It appears to be sufficiently distinct, however, from N. colicmella, which was described 

 by Cramer as from China, and as figured is a much larger insect [3*4 inches in expanse], with a 

 concave spot on the inner margin of the forewing." 



" In two specimens now before me, viz., the ' type ' from Darjeeling and a Malaccan 

 example, the neuration of the hindwing is aberrant, the costal nervure being placed low down 

 and reaching the apex, whilst the subcostal nervules are thus forced close together." {Distant, 

 I. c) On e.\araination of the long series of specimens of this species in the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, I find this latter feature very inconstant, in all the female examples and also the males 

 from South India, the costal nervure of the hindwing does not nearly reach the apex of the 

 wing, the subcostal nervules being therefore well-separated, while in males from Sikkim, 

 Calcutta, Cachar, North Khasi Hills and the Meplay Valley, it reaches the margin at or 

 even below the apex, the subcostals being consequently placed very close together. 



There is a single male from the North Khasi Hills in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, named 

 N. columella by Mr. Moore. As its expanse is half an inch less than that of Cramer's figure, 

 and as the spot on the upperside of the forewing in the submedian interspace is not curved, I 

 prefer to consider it to be one of the numerous forms of N, ophiana. The ground-colour 

 of the underside of this specimen is distinctly bright ochreous (as in Cramer's figure), but 

 this character is extremely variable, in Sikkim and South Indian examples it is dark brownish- 

 ferruginous. In female examples from Orissa, Rutnagherry, Bangalore and Ootacamund 

 the discal white baud of the hindwing on the underside reaches to the interspace below the 

 costal nervure, in male examples from Ootacamund only to the interspace below that, while in 

 many North Indian specimens it does not extend beyond the interspace below that again ; 



14 



