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XIX. A Note on Elymnias borneensis, Wallace. By 

 Robert W. C. Shelford, M.A., F.L.S., C.M.Z.8. 

 With a Note by Colonel Charles T. Bingham, 

 F.Z.S. 



[Read March 2nd, 1904.] 



There has been much confusion over this species, which 

 was first described from a female specimen by Dr. A. R, 

 Wallace in 1869 (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lend., p. 324) ; in 1887 

 Staudinger figured what he supposed to be the male (Exot. 

 Schmett., PL 86), but Fruhsturfer in 1899 (Berl. Ent. 

 Zeitschr., xliv, p. 57) rightly pointed out that Staudinger's 

 figure is that of a female ; however, he then goes on to 

 state that the true male is "ganz blau und gehort mit 

 mehida, Hew., und sumatrana, Wall., zusammen in eine 

 andere Gruppe und zvvar in das sub-genus Bruasa, Moore." 

 Now this is entirely wrong ; the male alluded to by 

 Fruhstorfer is the E. borneensis of Grose-Smith described 

 in 1892 (Ann. Mag. N. H., p. 428), the female of which 

 resembles the females of the other species of the sub- 

 genus Bruasa', none of them are Pierine mimics as is 

 Elymnias borneensis $, Wall. 



What then is the male of Wallace's species ? It is 

 the butterfly wrongly termed Elymnias esaca, Westwood 

 (Borneo). The type of E. esaca, Westw., was originally 

 recorded as from the "East Indies," and the locality 

 " Assam " subsequently quoted in some works on Oriental 

 Lepidoptera appears to be quite erroneous ; E. esacoides, 

 de Nice v., from Perak and Sumatra is, judging from 

 specimens in the British Museum, identical with 

 E. esaca, Westw., and E. godferyi, Dist., from the Malay 

 Peninsula and Sumatra is, in all probability, the female of 

 the species. E. esaca, Westw., belongs to the sub-genus 

 Agrnsicc, Moore, and the other species of the sub-genus 

 are E. leontina, Fruhst., E. maheswara, Fruhst., E. andersoni, 

 Moore, E. cgialina, Feld., and E. borneensis, Wall. All the 

 males of this sub-genus are black on the upper-side with 

 a sub-marginal row of green maculae on both fore- and 

 hind-wings (in E. borneensis the maculae on the hind-wing 

 are obsolescent) ; the under-side is cryptically coloured, 

 being dark fuscous mottled and freckled with lighter 



trans, ent, soc. lond. 1904. — PART III. (sept.) 



