Lepidoptera of Sikkim. 299 
of the specimens they described and figured, and where, 
as frequently happens in the commoner and wider- 
ranging species, local varieties have been specifically 
separated from the supposed typical form, confusion and 
inaccuracy must often result from an attempt to restrict 
the old name to one or other of them. Fixity and 
uniformity of nomenclature is in my opinion more 
important than an extreme regard for priority, which 
cannot always be ascertained with certainty. I care but 
little what name is used for a species so long as every 
one uses the same name for the same thing, and have, 
therefore, in one or two cases refused to follow changes 
in nomenclature proposed by other writers. 
NYMPHALID. 
DANAINA. 
1. Danais melanoides. 
Parantica melanoides, Moore, P.Z.8., 1883, p. 247. 
Danais aglea (part) auctorum, Butt. Ind., 1, p. 38, 
t. vi., 7, ¢ 2 (1882). 
Common in the Terai and up to 5—6000 ft. from 
March to December. If Moore is right, as I believe he 
is, in identifymg Cramer’s D. aglea with the South 
Indian species known as ceylonica, Feld., the Himalayan 
form, which extends to Tenasserim and Formosa, must 
bear the name of melanoides. 
2. Danais tytia. 
Danais tytia, Gray, Lep. Nep., p. 9, t. ix., 2 (1846) ; 
Butt. Ind. i., p. 42. 
D. sita, Koll., Hugel’s Kash., p. 424, t. vi. (1848). 
Occurs from the lowest valleys up to 8—9000 ft., but 
most abundant at 2—38000 ft. between March and 
December. It was not so common in 1886 in Sikkim as 
in the Khasias, where it is abundant on the plateau, but 
according to de Niceville it is much more numerous in 
some seasons than others. 
