234 NYMPHALID.l!;. NVM rilAI.lN.i: VANESSA. 



18,000 feet, far above the snow line. I also found it alniiulanliy in Nepalt'>5e Tibet and in the 

 dry valleys of Hundes (Chinese Tibet). The prehensores as drawn by ir.e are different from 

 those of F. urtic(S figured by Dr. Buchanan White." The larva like its European congener 

 feeds on the nettle. It is a very common species where it occurs, and is somewhat variable 

 in the tone of colouration, some examples being much darker coloured than others, but it is 

 never as brightly coloured as the European V, urlicce, 



526. Vanessa rizana, Moore. 



v. rizaua, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1872, p. 559. 

 HABirAT: Chini (9,000 feet), Middle Kunavvar, N.-W. Himalaya. 

 Expanse : 187 to 2-20 inches. 



DESCRipriON : ''Male. Differs from V. cashiuirensls m being a smaller and more 

 compact insect, and having the Jorciving less produced at the apex ; markings and colours 

 disposed as in that species, but more clearly defined and the colours much brighter. Forewing 

 with the red colour near the base descending to near the submedian nervure, the posterior 

 black spot being quadrate, well defined, and broadly bordered outwards with clear yellow, 

 this colour also bordering the two upper discal spots ; submarginal black border narrow. 

 llindiving with the black base bordered outwardly by clear yellow ; the submarginal rcw 

 of dentate blue-centred black lunules being without the broad inner dusky border. Under- 

 siUE darker than in V. cashmirensis ; markings similar." {Moore, 1. c.) 



The only specimens of this species that I have seen are three in Colonel Lang's collection ; 

 one from Gulmurg taken by Dr. Jerdon, * one from Kunawar, and one from Thibet, 10,000 

 feet. In all of them the forewing is less angled, the colouration much brighter than in V. casch- 

 miiensis, (being nearly as bright as in V. urticce), but the chief distinguishing point is that 

 in F. rizatta [he black blue-centred lunules on the margin of the hindwing on the upperside 

 are not broadly inwardly bordered with a dusky band, thus causing the discal fulvous band to be 

 much broader. V. rizana appears to be a rare species, 



527. Vanessa ladakensis, Moore. 



y. /adakensis, Moore, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., fifth series, vol. i, p. 227 (1878) ; idem, id.. Second 

 Yarkand Exp., Lep., p. 2, n. 6, pi. i, fig. 2 {1879); id., Elwes, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 403 ; id., Doherty, 

 Journ. A. S. B., vol. Iv, pt. 2, p. 122, n. 64 (1886). 



Habitat : Gogra, Changchenmo (15,000 feet), Ladak (October 1873), Karatagh lake, on 

 snow (16,890 feet), Yarkund, October iith, 1873. Midday temperature 33°. Also in Kumaon 

 and Native Sikkim. 



Expanse : I'Sz to 2-30 inches, 



Description : " Most nearly allied to V. rizana, Moore, from Chini. Differing in being 

 [usually] somewhat smaller, less angled below the apex of forewing and at the middle of the 

 hindwing ; the black markings on the upperside are much less prominent, the black oblique 

 ))ands on the forewing merging into the red, and appearing somewhat confluent ; the outer 

 transverse discal yellow band is also broader. Other markings similar. On the underside 

 the interspaces between the markings on they2)?YJWw^ are very much paler." {Moore, I.e. in 

 Ann. and Mag of Nat. Hist.) 



There is a single male of this species in Colonel Lang's collection from Kunawar, 

 and Captain Elwes' and Mr. Otto MoUer's native collectors obtained it at high elevations in 

 Native Sikkim. Mr. Doherty records it from " Near Kaiapani, Nepalese Tibet, 14,000 feet ; 

 another near Hindi, Chinese Tibet, 15,000 feet. The prehensores are quite different from 

 those of V. kasch)?iirensis" 



It is distinguished from V. rizana by both wings being less angled, and on the upper- 

 side there is a pale yellow discal band commencing on the costa of the forewing between the 



* Probable the specimen referred to by Colonel Lang in Ent. Month, Mag., vol. v. p. 34 (1868) under the 

 name of l'. caihinirensis. 



