NYMlMlALIDJi. NYMPIIALIN/E. VANESSA. 235 



second and ihiid black quadiale patches and extending across the hindwing beyond the I)Iack 

 l)asal area which inwardly bounds it. Mr. Moore's figure is much too highly coloured, 

 all the markings are duller and less sharply defined. It is a rare species in collections. 

 Captain Elwes writes regarding it in his paper on the Butterflies of Sikkim "About 

 fifteen specimens, mostly worn, of this species, all of which agree in their characters, and 

 can be known at once from the forms of V. urtica by the shape of the forewing, which 

 is rounded at the apex, with hardly a trace of the projecting point below the angle which 

 is conspicuous in V. urlicce, F. kashmeriensis, and V. polyckloros. It seems to be an inhabitant 

 of the high cold plateau of Tibet, was first taken at Gogra in Ladak, and has never been 

 sent to England from Sikkim, to my knowledge, before ; so I think we may conclude that it 

 does not occur on this side of the passes." 



528. Vanessa ZantllOmelaS, Wiener Verzeichniss. (Plate XVIII, Fig. 73 $). 



Papilio xanthomelas, Wiener Verzeichniss, p. 176, n. 6 (1776); id., Esper, Schmett., vol. i, pt. 2, pi. Ixiii, 

 (ig 4 (1780?) ; id., Hiibner, Eur. Schmett., vol. i, figs. 85, 86 (1793?) ; id., Ochsenheimer, Schmett. Eur., vol. i, 

 pt. I, p. 117 (1807); Vanessa xa/tthoinelas, Godart, Enc. Me'th., vol. ix, p. 820, n. 24 (1823) ; id., Horsfield 

 and Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 137, n. 275 (1857) ; id., Lang, Ent. Month. Mag., vol. v, p. 34 

 (1S68) ; id., Moore, Proc, Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 240. 



Habitat : Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Western Himalayas. 

 Expanse : 2'o to 3*0 inches. 



Description : Male and female. Upperside, both zmns;s rich fulvous, the outer 

 margin broadly black, bearing two indistinct diffused ochreous marginal lines, which are 

 broken by bluish spots at the ends of the nervules. Forewing with two black spots in the 

 m ddle of the cell, often more or less joined, sometimes forming a single quadrate spot, a laro-e 

 quadrate black patch at the end of the cell bounded above by the costa and below by the third 

 median nervule, beyond which is a pale yellow diffused patch on the costa, another black 

 1 atch beyond decreasing in width from the costa to the lower discoidal nervule ; with a pale 

 ) ellowish more or less macular streak beyond from the costa to the upper discoidal interspace ; 

 two more or less rounded black spots on the disc, the lower the larger, divided by the second 

 median nervule ; two other larger similar spots in the submedian interspace, the outer one 

 the smaller, less distinct and diffused ; the costa more or less striated with ochreous and black. 

 JJindiving with a large somewhat rounded black spot from the middle of the costa to the dis- 

 coidal nervule, the disco-cellulars defined with two fine black lines, a prominent series of blue 

 lunules on the black margin within the ochreous lines. Undekside ochreous, densely striated 

 with deep brown and black, the basal half and outer margins of the wings much darker, Both 

 above and below this species is densely hairy, more so than any other Indian species of 

 iiutterfly known to me. 



Dr. Lang* gives Northern India as the only Asiatic habitat of V. xanthomelas, but for V. 

 polyckloros he gives Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria and Siberia. The differences between the 

 two species are very slight. Dr. Lang says that V. xanihomeLts diiifers from V. polyckloros 

 " by the somewhat sharper angular projections of the hind margins, the redder ground-colour 

 of the wings [on the upperside] ; and by the presence of a whitish [in all the Indian specimens 

 of V. xanlkomelas I have seen, this spot is pale yellow] spot on the apical side of the exterior 

 costal black spot. The blue lunules on the hindwing are rather more definite. The markiu'Ts 

 of the underside are more defined, and there is on the middle of the hindwing a faint li-dit 

 spot," the latter being also present in F, polyckloros. There seems to be really no character 

 by which these two species can be satisfactorily separated, but I keep them distinct in accor- 

 dance with the generally accepted opinions of entomological writers. Dr. Staudin^erf has 

 also expressed his opinion that they are doubtfully distinct. 



In India V, xanlkomelas is a rare species, and appears to be confined to the Western 

 Himalayas, though it has been recorded in Horsfield and Moore's Catalogue from Daijiling. 

 In Simla and Kulu it appears on the wing in the early summer for a very short period just 



' Butterflies of Europe, p. 172. 



t Hor. Soc. Eiit. Ross., vol. xiv, pp. 263, 764 (1878). 



