1921] MouLTON : Malaysian Butterflies. 167 



females, however, is a point worth noticing, since in the 

 above series there were only 5 females to 99 males. 



The characters given by Fruhstorfer for sinopion are 

 (i) the narrower vitreous areas and (ii) the almost entirely 

 black ground colour of both wings beneath, which only 

 show slight traces of a red-brown tinge. In regard to the 

 first pomt, the Malayan specimens agree admirably 

 with the Indian example figured by de Niceville.^ There 

 are, however, two males in the Raffles Museum, in which 

 the top posl-cellular hyaline streak in the fore wdng is 

 reduced to a small dash less than half the length of the 

 lower post-cellular hyaline streak. The white marginal 

 dots of the hind wing present a variable feature : a complete 

 series being present in some specimens, while in others two 

 or three only are barely visible and in one example they are 

 absent altogether. Similarly the two small spots between 

 the median nervules of the hind wing vary in size, and in 

 some specimens partially or completely fuse with the larger 

 hyaline spots immediately below the outer half of the cell. 



The ground-colour beneath is certainly blackish, but in 

 many specimens a pronounced reddish wash is very notice- 

 able. I think, therefore, that Fruhstorfer's sinopion for 

 the Malayan form must be regarded as a synonym 

 of plataniston, under which name the Indian form is dis- 

 tinguished by Fruhstorfer. Evans-, however, retains 

 Cramer's name melaneiis for the Indian form. Cramer's 

 species is supposed to have come from South China. 

 Whether the Indian and South China forms are separable 

 oi' not 1 do not know. Godfrey records plataw'slon from 

 Siam. Two examples he sends me from Me Song (Siam) 

 are certainly inseparable from the Malayan plataniston. 

 The thirty-six males in the F.M.S. Museums from Hat 

 Sanuk and Tasan, S.W. Siam, are rather smaller than the 

 more southern Malayan examples and they might be 

 referred to Fruhstorfer's dry-season form neopah'a but for 

 the fact that they are by no means " entirely light red " 

 beneath. The submarginal dots in these are generally 

 though not always, purer white than in most of the Malayan 

 examples. 



Distrib. Cliina and Northern India to Siam, Malay 

 Peninsula and Java. The only Malaysian subspecies are : — 

 D. m. plataniston Fruhst. Malay Peninsula (northwards 



,, to Siam and India). 



U. m. pseudomelaneus Moore .lava. 



Closely alhed to melaneiis come two other Malaysian 

 species, which do not, however, occur in the Malay 

 Peninsula : — 



10. Danaida banksi Moore banksi Moore. 



Danaida banksi banksi Fnihstorfei- 1910, p. 210. 



Distrib. The species is confined to Sumatra, Nias and 

 Batu Islands, divided into three subspecies : — 



' DeI^iceville, 1882,1)1. V, flg.^^ 

 * Evans, 1920, p. 560. 

 ' Godfrey, 1916, p. 118. 



