436 Mr. H. J. Elwes’ catalogue of the 
432. Papilio bathycles var. chiron. 
Papilio bathycles, Zincken-Sommer, Nova Acta Ac. 
Nat. Cur., xv., p. 157, t. 14, 6, 7 (1837); Wall., 
Trans. Linn. Soc., xxv., p. 66 (1865); Dist., 
Rhop. Mal., p. 362, t. xxxi., 2. 
P. Bathycles, Guer., Belang. Voy. Ind. Or. Ins., p. 505, 
t. v., figs. 1, la (1844). 
Var..? chiron, Wall., Trans. Linn. Soc., xxv., p. 66 
(1865). 
Var. bathycloides, Honr., Berl. Ent. Zeit., xxviil., 
p. 396, t. x., 8 (1884). 
Var. chironides, Honr., l.c., p. 397, t. x., 4. 
The form of bathycles, which occurs not uncommonly 
in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhotan, and the Khasias, but which 
is not included in the list of Cachar butterflies by 
Messrs. Wood-Mason and de Nicéville, or in that of 
Tenasserim butterflies by Moore, was separated by 
Wallace under the name of P. chiron, but though I 
have not been able to compare large series of the Hima- 
layan form with a corresponding number from the 
Malay peninsula and islands, I do not see that the points 
relied on by Wallace are of specific value. And though 
it might be possible to distinguish the typical specimens 
of chiron from typical specimens of bathycles with 
certainty, yet we have the same difficulty which occurs 
in so many wide-ranging species, of intermediate forms 
and varieties which combine more or less of the characters 
of both extremes. Distant’s figure of bathycles, when 
compared with my Sikkim specimens, is such an inter- 
mediate, and Honrath adds further to the strength of 
my argument by figuring what he calls var. bathycloides 
from Malacca and Borneo, which he separates from 
Bathycles of Java, as well as chironides, which he says 
occurs with chiron in Sikkim. If we begin to pick out 
of a large series specimens to match these figures in 
the way which Mr. Moore commonly does, we shall find 
. ourselves left with a number which belong strictly to 
none of them, and though chiron is not in Sikkim 
subject to much variation, yet I cannot see good grounds 
for separating it at present. ‘The male is not uncommon 
at 2—8000 ft. from April to October, but I have never 
seen the female. 
