ISO NYMPHALID.E. • NYMPIIALIN.E. NEUROSIGMA. 



transverse black bands [on hiiulwing] broken up into spots, the discal series of longitudinal 

 streaks very narrow, and the submarginal lunules also narrow." i^Moore, 1. c. in Ann. and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist.) 



" Larva cylindrical, pale purplish-brown, darker beneath, with dark brown longitu- 

 dinal dorsal lines and transverse white spotted lines ; head and anal segment spined, other seg- 

 ments slightly hairy, third to twelfth segments armed with branched spines which are 

 longest on third, fourth, eleventh, and twelfth segments. Feeds on Modecca. Pupa pale 

 purplish-brown, somewhat fusiform, head pointed and cleft." {Moore, 1. c. in Lep. Cey.) 



In Ceylon this species " occurs every wliere. Plains and up to 6,000 feet, in forest land, I 

 believe all the year round. A slow flier, rather shy. Sits on large leaves with wings spread" 

 (flutchison). " Very swift of flight, and difficult to capture" (Mackwood). " Galle ; Kandy. 

 Common" (^Wade). 



This species is easily distinguished from P. gaiiihi-isiiis. The tone of the ground-colour 

 is quite difTerent, the three subapical semi-hyaline spots of the forewing are well-separated 

 and distinct from the next group of three spots, and the submarginal back lunules on the 

 hindwing above are much narrower and with rounded apices. The lower semi-hyaline spot 

 in the submedian interspace is obsolete in this species, but is almost always present in 

 P. gamhrisius in all its forms. 



The figure shows the upper and undersides of a male specimen from Ceylon in the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. 



Geaus 72.-lTEUR0SiaMA, Butler. (Plate XIX). 



Neurosigma, Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1S6S, p. 615 ; Acontia, Westwood, Cab. Or. Ent., p. 76 (1848). 



" Nearly allied to Romalceosoma [an African genus], of which it is probably the 

 eastern representative ; it difl^ers, however, in neuration. Body, palpi and antenncs formed 

 and coloured as in Romaheosoina ; the wings coloured as in some Eastern species of Argynnis : 

 the discoidal cells closed ; the upper disco-cellular nervnle of the FOREWrNG extremely minute ; 

 the middle short and transverse ; the lojoer long, transverse, and gently waved, meeting 

 the third median nervule close to the origin of the second ; the tipper disco-cellular nervule of 

 HINDWING short and arched inwardly ; the lower long, arched outwards, slightly angulated 

 in the middle, and meeting the third median nervule just beyond the origin of the second. 

 Typical species, Neurosigtna siva." (Butler, I. c.) 



AntenncB, exactly half the length of the forewing, with a long slender but distinct 

 club ; eyes, naked ; palpi, with closely appressed scales. Forewing, triangular ; cosla 

 gently arched, apex rounded ; outer margin slightly emarginate, even ; inner margin sinuate, 

 rather longer than the outer margin ; costal neivure reaching to more tiian half the 

 length of the wing ; subcostal throwing oil its first branch at two-thirds of the length 

 of the cell, its second branch emitted some little distance before the end of the 

 cell, its third branch opposite the apex of the costal nervure, at first running almost 

 parallel with the subcostal nervure, then arched forwards and reaching the apex of the 

 wing. Middle disco-cellular nervule at first straight, inwardly oblique, angled just beyond 

 its middle, from the angle outwardly oblique ; lower disco-cellular sinuous, meeting 

 the median nervure a little beyond the origin of the second median nervule ; third median 

 nervule slightly curved ; submedian nervure very sinuate. Hindwing, with the prcecostal 

 nervure long, stout, evenly curved outwards, emitted from the costal nervure exactly at the 

 point from which springs the subcostal nervure ; the lower disco-cellular nervule joined to the 

 median nervure immediately after the point where the second median nervule is given off. 



Neurosigtna contains but a single species, which occurs in Sikkim, Assam, Cachar, 

 Chittagong, and Upper Burma, It is rich tawny in colouration with black spots and markings, 

 the apex of the forewing and the outer margin of the hindwing broadly black with whitish 

 spots. In the female the tawny colouration is reduced to a small patch at the base of 

 both wings. 



