NYMPIIALID.'E. NYMPHALIN^. VANESSA. 233 



Description : Male and female. Uppersidk, both wings richdaik chestnut, the outer 

 margin broadly and evenly white or pale straw-coloured, more or less densely striated with 

 black ; along the inner edge of this border is a black band, broader than the pale margin in the 

 hindwing, narrower in the forewing. bearing a series of rich shining blue oval spots between the 

 veins, which become obsolete towards the anal angle of the hindwing Forr.ving with two short 

 subcostal white or pale straw-coloured bars, the costa striated with the same colour. Under- 

 side, both wings with the outer border as above but paler and more densely striated, all the rest 

 of the wing black densely striated with deeper black ; sometimes with a more or less promment 

 ochreous spot at the lower outer end of the cell. Forrmng with the subcostal bars as above, 

 but less distinct. Hindwing with a narrow black irregular discal line. 



"Larva black, with white dots; from the fifth to the eleventh segments is a row of 

 dorsal light red spots, the spines are black or dark brown. Feeds [in Europe] on Salix 

 alba, sometimes on nettle or on birch."' ^Lang, Butt, of Europe, p. 176). 



V. antiopa, the "Camberwell Beauty" of English entomologists, has been obtained within 

 our limits by Captain Elwes' and Mr. Otto Moller's native collectors at high elevations in 

 Native Sikkim and across the passes in Chumbi ; it has also been recorded from Bhutan. 

 All the Indian specimens known to me have the pale border on the upperside ochreous 

 not white, this ochreous colour being of a darker shade than in any European specimens 

 I have seen. As will be observed from the localities above, it has an immense range in 

 the Northern Hemisphere. 



525. Vanessa caschmirensis, Koiiar. 



y. caschmirensis, KoUar, Hugel's Kasch., vol. iv, pt. 2, p. 442, n. i, pi. xi, figs. 3, 4(1848) ; id., Hors- 

 fieldand Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 137. "• 276(1857) ; V- kaschmirensis, Moore, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. Lend., 1882, p. 240; id., Doherty, Journ. A. S. B.. vol. Iv, pt. 2, p. 121, n. 63 (i885) ; V. kashmeriensisy 

 Elwes, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 403 ; V. flacilla, Doubleday MS., in Gray's Lep. Ins. Nep., p. 11 (1846). 



Habitat : Throughout the Himalayas at suitable elevations. 



Expanse : 2*2 to 2*5 inches. 



Description : Male and female. Upperside, both wings rich chestnut-red, this colour 

 in the hindwing confined to a broad discal band, the base narrowly and inner margin below the 

 first median nervule in the forewing, the base of the hindwing, broadly black, thickly irrorated 

 with ochreous scales, the outer margins black bearing two paler lines, within the latter 

 on the hindwing are a series of prominent deep black lunules with blue centres. Foreiving with 

 a quadrate black bar across the middle of the cell, then a pale yellow bar, then another 

 much larger black bar, with another narrower pale yellow bar beyond it, beyond which 

 again is a third rather smaller black bar, with a small bluish-white costal spot placed 

 outwardly against it. A round black spot on the disc in the second median interspace, 

 a larger one below it in the next interspace, a still larger but more irregular and diffused 

 spot in the subinedian interspace but placed nearer the base of the wing, with a diffused pale 

 yellow patch beyond it. Underside, both zuiiigs brown, thickly striated with black; a submarginal 

 Vnulated black line. Foircuing\V\\.h. a narrow oval black spot with pale centre at the base of the 

 cell, two fine black zigzag lines enclosing a black space across the middle of the cell, a large 

 black patch at the end of the cell. Hindwing with the basal half blackish, this area sharply 

 defined by an irregular deep black fine line, a more or less prominent ochreous spot at the lower 

 end of the cell, and two fine black lines enclosing a blackish space across its middle. 



V. caschmirensis is a local race of the European and Japanese " Small Tortoiseshell 

 Butterfly," V. wtica:, LinnECus, differing only from that species in the darker and duller tone of 

 colouration and usually larger size. It occurs throughout the outer ranges of the Himalayas at 

 suitable elevations, and specimens were obtained by the Yunan expedition. Captain Elwes (1. c.) 

 writes of it : " Sikkim specimens, as a rule, are darker than those from Kashmir. It occurs 

 at and below Darjiling during winter, and I have taken it on sunny December days at 4,000 

 feet." In Simla in fine weather it may be seen throughout the year. Mr. Doherty met 

 with it in Kumaon "from the Kali valley {2,500 feet) to the summit of the Lepu Lek, over 



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