132 NVMPIIALID.E, NYMPHALIN^. ARGYNNIS. 



Mr. IMoore has described an accidental variety or " sport" of A. niphe under the name of 

 A. arnna. There is a somewhat similar but less heavily marked example from the Khasi Hills 

 in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. A description of A. arnna is given below.* 



422. Arerynnia rudra, Moore. (Plate XVIII, Fig. 75^). 



A. rui/ra, Moore, HoisfielJ and Moore, Cat, Lep. Mus. E I. C, vol. i, p. 157, n. 325 (1857) ; idem, id., 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1874, p. 267, n. 22 ; idem, id., Anderson's Anat. and Zool. Researches, p. 924 (1878). 

 Habitat : Kashmir, N. India (Moore) ; Assam, Upper Burma. 

 Expanse : 27 to 3-1 inches. 



Descrittion: " Upperside bright fulvous, duller and slightly tinged with green at the base. 

 Foreiuing with the markings disposed as in A. childreni, but somewhat smaller, but with a mar- 

 ginal row of small spots. Huidwing with the spots also disposed as in A. childreni^ but with 

 a marginal row of spots. UNDERSiDE,yi;;rzc/«o fulvous-yellow, greenish at the apex ; the spots 

 on the e.xterior half indistinct. Hindtvitig light green, palest on abdominal margin ; a ferru- 

 ginous irregular band crossing the basal half; an irregular more or less white line crossing from 

 anterior margin near the angle to abdominal angle ; also some white disposed from anal angle 

 and enclosing the green colour, and thus forming a submarginal row ; along the outside of the 

 •white line some ferruginous spots, centred with white. Wings shaped as in A. laodice, which 

 appears to be a near ally." (Moore, 1. c.) 



A. rndra is a very beautiful species, and is quite distinct from all the other Indian ones, 

 though closely allied to the Eastern European, Northern Asiatic and Japanese A. laodice, Pallas, 

 but is more heavily marked, and the outer margin of the hindwing on the underside not so 

 distinctly vinous coloured. The male has the dark raised scales on the upperside of the fore- 

 wing on either side of the submedian nervure and first median nervule for a portion of their 

 length. I have not seen a female, but it will probably differ from the male only in having 

 the ground-colour on the upperside somewhat duller, and all the black markings heavier, and 

 in lacking the dark raised scales on the nervules. It is fairly common at Shillong in June, 

 and the Indian Museum, Calcutta, possesses specimens from Cherrapunji, Sibsagar (S. E. 

 Peal), and others from Pousee in Upper Burma taken in March by the Yunan Expedition- 

 I have no knowledge of its occurrence in Sikkim or indeed anywhere west of the Brahmaputra. 

 ]\Ir. Moore records it from Kashmir in describing the collection of the late Captain R. B. 

 Reed, but it is quite possible that the specimen was obtained by exchange ; no other 

 collector has, so far as I know, found it there nor in the vast intervening tract of country 

 from Kashmir to Bhutan ; and if a species of this type were found in the western Himalayas 

 it would more probably be the eastern European A. laodice than the Indo-Burmese A. rudra. 

 The figure shows both sides of a male Shillong specimen in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 



423. Argyanis diildreni, Gray. 



A. childreni. Gray, Zool. Misc., vol., i, p 33 (1831) ; id., Lep. Ins. Nep., p. 11, pi. xi, male (1846) ; A. 

 sakontalii, Kollar, Hiigel's Kaschmir, vol. iv, pt. ii, p. 439, n i, pi. xii, )iiale Siud female (1848) ; id"., Moore, 

 Anderson's Anat. and Zool. Researches, p. 924 (1878). 



Habitat : Himalayas, Assam, Burma. 



Expanse : 3-1 to 3-8 inches. 



Description : " Wings fulvous, spotted with black ; the anal half of the posterior margin 

 of the hindiving tinged with blue. Underside of the fomoing with the basal portion 

 crimson, spotted with black, an oblique medial band which extends along the margin to the 

 posterior angle, and the apex pale green with two short white lines. Hindioing greenish- 

 bronze with oblique silvery white bands, narrowly margined with blue on each side." 

 [.Gray, I. c. in Lep. Ins. Nepal.) 



* Argynnis arnna, Moore, Horsfield and Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus., E. L C., vol. i, p. 156, n. 322, pi. iii«, 

 fig 4, wa/t' (1857). Habitat: N.India. E.\panse : 3'i2 inches. Description ;" Uppersidb, wings fulvous. 

 Forewing with a broad black patch in discoidal cell and between the nervules, and duller markings on the exte- 

 rior margin. Hindwing having the whole space between the nervules posteriorly occupied with black, and leaving 

 only small lunular markings on the e.vterior margin, the latter becoming bluish at the anal angle. Underside 

 •w'.Ui \.\\eybre7ving broadly suffused with bl.ick. Hindwing with the basal half silvery, and with black markings 

 acruss the wing from outer to anal aii-ile. Shap' of wings as in A, nij>/te" (Mcore, 1. c ) 



