238 NYMl'HALIDzli. N YMrilALIN.li. SYMBRENTIIIA. 



sometimes umber-brown, sometimes almost black, banded, streaked and striated vvilli various 

 shades of colour. Hiiuhuing with a prominent comma-shaped white mark at the end of 

 the cell. Ur. Lang (Butt, of Eur., p, 170) describes the larva in Europe as '" greyish-brown, a 

 white dorsal stripe reaching from the 7th to the 13th segment. Head with two horn-like 

 projections. The colour of the head is black, and also that of the second segment, which 

 is covered with minute bristly warts ; the rest of the body is covered with branching spines, 

 brown and white in colour. The spiracles are black, surrounded with while and red-brown." 



Colonel Lar>g writes of it : " This Grapta, though apparently common at Gulmurg, 

 Kashmir, occurs but rarely in Kunawar, where, however, I have taken it at several localities far 

 apart, and of diverse altitudes and climates. Thus one very fine fresh specimen was taken on 

 tiie bleak Ilungrung Pass, at about 15,000 feet altitude ; while others were taken 200 miles away 

 on the lower, well-wooded ranges of the Simla district. The species varies considerably in the 

 colouring of the underside." Captain Elwes in his paper on the Butterflies of Sikkim remarks 

 of it : "A single, rather worn specimen was included in the collection, which, until we know 

 more of the flimalayan varieties, I prefer to call V. c-allmm. It is certainly much nearer to 

 Amur specimens of V. c-album than to what I have from Mr. Moore as typical V. agnicnla. I 

 have only seen one specimen from Sikkim before, which differed from this one ; and four others 

 which I possess from various parts of the Himalayas differ from each other as much as a similar 

 number of European specimens from various localities do. Unfortunately, I have but fifty 

 specimens in all of this group — not a tithe of what would be required to illustrate it properly ; but 

 the more I see the more impossible it seems to define them clearly. As far as I can see at pre- 

 sent, no one can say to what species a given specimen of any of these forms belongs, unless he 

 was told where it came from ; and if that be so, what more is necessary to prove my theory?" 

 From the large series of specimens from the flimalayas ranging from Kashmir to Sikkim now 

 before me, I am unable also to find a single constant character by which they can be separated 

 into distinct species or even local races ; they vary in every possible way, in outline, in the 

 extent and distinctness of all the markings, and in the tone of colouration on both upper and 

 undersides. It is very probable some of the variations are due to seasonal dimorphism, the 

 Spring brood being pale, the Autumn brood dark-coloured. Mr. Moore has described one form 

 as a distinct species under the name of Grapta agnicnla, but the distinctive characters on which 

 it is based appear to me to be quite inconstant. A description of it is given below.* 



Vanessa c-album has an enormous range in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Sikkim at any 

 rate, but appears to be nowhere common. Mr. R. Ellis took it on the Sanch Pass, Cluimba, 

 at 13,000 feet, in September, and at Pangi, 9,000 feet, in May, Mr- Doherty met with it 

 in Kumaon, from 8,000 to 15,000 feet elevation, and he remarks that he can separate his 

 own specimens of G. c-albuin and G. agnicnla by means of slight differences in the pre- 

 hensores as well as by the shape and colouring. I took it at Chumpur, Kashmir, in June. 



Vanessa (Gtapia) c-aurenm, Linnseus, has been recorded from Penang.t It occurs in 

 China and Japan, and I know of no other record of its occurrence out of those countries. 



Genus 82.-STMBIiENTHlA, HUbner. (Plate XXIII). 



Symbrcnthia, Hubner, Verz. bek. Schmett., p. 43 (1816) ; Laogona, Boisduval, Sp. Gen., vol. i, pi. x 

 fig- 3 (1836) ; id., Doubleday, Gen. Diurn. Lep., vol. i, p. 190 (1848). 



"Head, of moderate width, hairy ; eyes, oval, not remarkably prominent, hairy ; palpi, 

 ascending, projecting beyond the forehead, clothed with long scales, rather closely appressed, 

 except at the back of the second joint towards the apex, first joint short, subcylindric, curved, 

 two-fifths the length of the second joint, second joint cylindric, scarcely curved, subtruncate 



Gra/>ta asmcula, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Load., 1872, p. 559. Habitat : Katmandu, Nepal ; Gool- 

 murg, PMorth-east of Kashmir. Expanse: 2-12 inches. DhSCRii-TioN : " Malk and fkmale. Upfeksids 

 bright fulvous red ; both wtngs with prumi.ient black markings disposed as in Kashmir specimens of G. c-album, 

 excepting that u\ lhs:Jo>ewino; the basal spot within the cell is here broken up into two well-separated spots, and 

 the marginal band in the male IS nearly obsolete at the apex. FiiMALK with a broader marginal blackish-giey 

 band, the band on lh<i forewmg bordered by an inner row of yellowish spots, and that on the /imrt'7t'/«^ by a 

 media row of yellow spots Undhuside very dark greyish brown, brownest at the base within the irregular 

 medial transverse line, and covered with minute black strigae ; a transverse discal row of hardly perceptible 

 small black spots with pale borders ; a white comma-like mark on hindwing.'' {Mooic, I. c.) 

 t Horsfield and Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C, vol. i, p. 138, n. 278 (1857). 



