§ 
June, 1906.) iPAl 
OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN BUTTERFLIES. 
BY T. R. BELL. 
Reprinted from “ The Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine,’ Second Series, Vol. xvii. 
[The following interesting notes are extracted from two letters 
by Mr. T. R. Bell, the first written June 6th, 1903, from Camp 
Songhir, to Mr. H. BE. Andrewes; the second written a year later (June 
18th, 1904), to Professor Poulton, from Karachi. They give the 
impressions of a trained and experienced naturalist, and cannot fail 
to interest readers of the Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine. Only 
the notes on Natural History are quoted, and thus the communication 
opens somewhat abruptly. | 
In Kallima and Junonia among the Nymphaline ; and in Melanitis. 
and, to a lesser degree in the rest of the Satyrine group of butterflies, 
the seasonal forms are well marked:—in the dry season form by 
greatly developed hooks to the apex of the fore-wings, and productions 
or tails to the hind-wings; in the so-called “ wet-season”’ forms, by 
the presence of ocellation on the under-sides of both wings, which also 
very often have “ink” markings. The under-side of the dry-season 
forms is generally plain (as in Melanitis leda) with, very commonly, a 
straight line down the middle in the manner of a leaf midrib; this 
midrib being present only in the dry-season forms.* The “ windows ” 
or hyaline spots in Kallima, and white chalky-looking markings are also 
common; the former chiefly in the dry-season form, the latter in the 
wet (in Melanitis aswa for example). The ink-markings and chalk- 
markings I am certain are supposed to represent mould and lichens on 
decaying leaves, amongst which the butterflies are generally found 
sitting ; the hyaline markings are supposed to represent holes in the leaf 
which Kallima imitates.+ As the browns of the leaves vary in shade, so 
do the browns of the under-sides of the butterflies also vary (approach- 
ing to grey in the dry-season forms: the leaves at that season being 
often grey when dead), hardly two in a morning’s capture of say 
twenty specimens being exactly of the same shade. Tell Poulton that 
*In M. leda and M. aswa. 
+ The words ‘‘are supposed to” in the above sentence were considered to require further expla- 
nation by Prof. Poulton. Mr. Bell, in reply to his communication, wrote as follows :—‘‘ As regards 
‘are supposed to,’ I am afraid that that is what I should always write and say, as T am not at all 
certain that these characters (inky markings and mouldy-looking markings) would look the same 
to insects, reptiles and birds that they do to me. Perhaps ‘would probably be taken to he’ 
would be better.” 
