2jO NYMPHALlD.Ii. N YMPIIALIN/li. VANESSA. 



after it has emerged from the pupa, it then disappears till the following spring, when the 

 eggs are laid and the early stages of the insect rapidly passed through. Dr. T. C. Jerdon took 

 a single specimen at Gulmurg in Kashmir. I have taken it near Dalhousie, Mr. A. Graham 

 Young has bred it in Kulu on Pistachia iutcgerriina, the " larvre gregarious, under a loose 

 web whilst feeding, when about to change to pupoe they desert the food-plant and disperse 

 amongst low herbage ;" Mr. Hocking has reared it on willow. The larva is ferruginous 

 fuscous thickly sprinkled with ochreous ; there is a dorsal and two lateral lines devoid of 

 ochreous markings but defined with ochreous on each side, the head is small and black with 

 numerous small black tubercles, the body cylindrical, constricted at each segment, gradually 

 increasing in width to the fourth segment, each segment furnished with six stout black branched 

 spines, of which the upper pair are the largest, the anterior legs black, the posterior ones 

 concolourous with the rest of the body. This description is taken from larva; preserved by 

 Mr. Hocking. 



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



529. Vanessa VatL-alTaum, wiener Verzeichniss. 



Papilio vau-album, Wiener Verzeichniss, p. 176, n. 7 (1776); P. v-albnm, Fabricius, Mant. Ins., vol. ii, p. 

 50, n. 489 (1787); id., Hubner, Eur. Schmett., vol. i, figs. 83, 84 (1793?); id., Ochseuheimer, Schmett. Eur., 

 vol. i, pt. 1, p. 112 (1807) ; Vanessa v-albtim, Godart, Enc. M^th., vol. ix, p. 306, n. 22 (1819) ; id., Lang, Ent. 

 Month. Mag., vol. v, p. 34 (1868) ;/'«////(? /o/jr/z/(77w, Cramer (wt-c Linnsus), Pap. E.\., vol. iv, pi. cccx.xx, 

 figs. C, D (1780); p. l-album, Esper, Schmett., vol. i, pt. 2, pi. ixii, figs. 3a, b (1780). 



Habitat : Eastern Europe, Central Russia, Northern Asia, Kashmir. 



E.XPANSE : 2*0 to 3 '2 inches. 



Description : Male and female. Upperside, both zvings deep fulvous. Forewitig 

 with a black constricted spot across the middle of the cell, a large quadrate spot at its end, 

 reaching from the costa to the third median nervule, with a pale yellow diffused costal patch 

 on each side of it, the apex broadly black bearing a pure white costal spot divided by the 

 fourth and fifth subcostal nervules, a round black spot in the second median interspace, two 

 black spots each in the two following interspaces, the margin broadly black bearing two 

 indistinct ochreous lines, the base and inner margin sprinkled with fuscous scales. Hindwing 

 with a large rounded black spot from the middle of the costa to the discoidal nervule, with a 

 white quadrate spot placed outwardly against it, the margin broadly black enclosing a more 

 or less distinct series of rounded spots paler than the ground-colour and two indistinct marginal 

 lines. Underside ochreous but very variable, both in the tone of the ground-colour and the 

 extent and disposition of the markings, more or less densely irrorated and striated with 

 various shades of black, brown and white, the basal area darker, sharply outwardly defined 

 with a very irregular black line, the outer margin of the foraving between the angulations 

 also darker, and bearing a bluish line ; hindivzn^ with a small white mark at the end of the 

 cell, often obsolete. It is distinctly transitional to the next group of species. 



Dr. Lang (Butt, of Eur., p. 173) describes the larva in Europe as «' brownish-red, with a 

 dark dorsal line, and yellowish-white lateral stripes ; the spines are yellowish with darker 

 tips. Gregarious on poplar and sallow." 



Dr. T. C. Jerdon took this species at Gulmurg, 9,000 feet ; it has also been taken at Sona- 

 murg, both in Kashmir, which are the only records of its occurrence in India. It appears to 

 be a rare species. On the upperside it bears a close resemblanee to V. xanthomelas, especially 

 on the forewing ; the hindwing however prominently differs in having a white patch beyond the 

 black patch on the middle of the costa, and in the entire absence of the blue lunules. 



The next two species belong to a genus which has been separated from Vanessa under 

 the name of Graptu by Kirby. Typically the genus differs from Vanessa by the costa of the 

 forewing at the base being deeply excavated, tiie inner margin highly sinuous, and the 

 outer margins more deeply crenulated, but all these characters are variable- In Grapta egea, 

 Cramer, they are hardly more prominent than in Vanessa vau-album. The palpi and forelegs 

 are less hairy than in Vanessa, being clothed with large densely matted scales. 



