from North-west India. 143 



" Common at Murree and Thundiani in August 1885 and 

 1886."—/. W. Y. 



32. Neptis astola. 

 Neptis astola, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 560. 



Chittar, between Tret and Barracoo, 9tli October, 1885 ; 

 Thundiani, 20tli September ; Hurripur, 14th October, 1886. 



Three examples, all more or less worn, mixed up with a 

 series oiN. mahendra. 



33. Neptis Yerburii. 



S . Nej^tis Yerburii, Butler, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, p. 360, u. 17. 



$ . Dhum tower, near Abbottabad, 12tli October, 1886. 



The female is larger than the male and on the primaries the 

 spots of the oblique series from inner margin are slightly 

 smaller (in which respects it is rather more like N. nandina 

 than the male) ; in the pale lines between the bands, the white 

 markings, and other respects it resembles it. Major Yerbury 

 correctly names this insect*, but says " I am unable to recog- 

 nize this form," from which I conjecture that he is not sure 

 how it can be at once distmguished from N. mahendra. The 

 latter is a short-winged species of the N. columella group, the 

 males having the white spots on the disk of primaries sepa- 

 rated into three distinct patches ; in the females, however, the 

 two lower patches are sometimes only divided by the first median 

 branch (blackened) ; nevertheless the inner edge of the short 

 white band thus formed is invariably augulated internally and 

 deeply excised externally at this point. In N. Yerburii^ on 

 the other hand, there is an oblique series of white spots as in 

 N. nandina, with a straight inner edge ; in A^. mahendra 

 again there is a wide break in the middle of the submarginal 

 series of white spots on the primaries, the triangular spot 

 beyond the cell is short and obtuse, and the pale submarginal 

 stripe on the secondaries is wanting ; on the under surface 

 the ground-colour is of a much more uniform coffee-red 

 colour, and the female has no whitish border to the secon- 

 daries ; there is therefore no difficulty in separating the two 

 species, indeed there are many other species of Neptis much 

 less readily distinguishable. 



34. Neptis mahendra. 



Neptis mahendra, Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 5G0, pi. xxxii. fig. 3. 



Thundiani, 15th, 19th, 21st, and 29th August, 15th Sep- 

 tember, 1886. 



