ARGYNNIS. 53 



found in Africa along the north coast, which really belongs to 

 the European fauna ; and though several very handsome species 

 are found in Northern India, the only species properly belong- 

 ing to the Indian Peninsular fauna is A. niphe (Linn.), a some- 

 what aberrant form, the female of which mimics Limnas. 

 chrysippus. It is found in India, Ceylon, and Sumatra; and an 

 allied species, in which, however, the female resembles the male, 

 A. inconstans, Butler, is found in Australia. Several species 

 exhibit a tendency to dark green instead of fulvous colouring, 

 especially in the female, as in the dark variety of our own 

 A. paphia (Linn.), and in both sexes of the South European 

 A. maia (Cramer). Another remarkable species with a green 

 female is A. sagana, Doubleday, a Butterfly found in China and 

 Japan, in which the male is very similar to A. paphia^ but the 

 female is dark green, with large white blotches and spots, giving 

 it much the appearance of the genus Athyma^ which is allied to 

 Limenitis. It is not surprising that when this female was first 

 brought from Eastern Siberia it should have been described as 

 belonging to a new genus and species, under the name of 

 Dainora paulina^ Nordmann. 



Among the Himalayan species is the splendid A. childreni, 

 Gray, a very large insect measuring four inches or more in 

 expanse, and marked with broad silver interlacing bands on the 

 under surface. 



Argynnis is one of the few genera which are as well repre- 

 sented in the Nearctic as in the Palsearctic Region. Many 

 very handsome species are common in most parts of the United 

 States, such as A. idalia (Drury), which measures nearly four 

 inches across the wings. The fore-wings are fulvous, spotted 

 with black, and the hind-wings are brown above, with a trans- 

 verse row of white spots, and a sub-marginal row, orange in the 

 male, and white in the female ; beneath there are four rows of 

 slightly silvery spots. But the greatest variety is found in the 



