1882.] MR. H. J. ELWES ON BUTTERFLIES FROM SIKKIM. -JOS 



soni, Moore, and resembles the former very closelv above, but not 

 below. Tlie males have a more purple tinge on both wings than 

 7 /lewif soni, hut the females are hardly, if at all, to be distinguished 

 from this species, which I have taken at Darjeeling in December. 

 The genus is a very difficult one, as there are four or five very nearly 

 allied species in the Himalaya. 



Vanessa ladakensis, Moore, Yarkand Mission, Lap. p. 3, t. i. 

 fig. 2 (1879). 



About fifteen specimens, mostly worn, of this species, all of which 

 agree in their characters, and can be known at once from the forms of 

 F. urticie by the shape of the fore wings, which are rounded at the 

 apex, with hardly a trace of the projecting point below the angle which 

 is conspicuous in F. urlicce, F. hanhmeriensis, and F.polijchloros. It 

 seems to be an inhabitant of the high cold plateau of Tibet, was first 

 taken at Gogra in Ladak, and has never been sent to England from 

 Sikkim, to my knowledge, before ; so I think we may conclude that 

 it does not occur on this side of the passes. 



Vanessa kashmeriensis, Koll. Kasch. p. 442, t. ii. 



Some of the specimens of this species are very near F. rizana of 

 Moore, which seems to me hardly separable from it. 



Sikkim specimens, as a rule, are darker than those from Kashmir. 

 It occurs at and below Darjteling during winter, and I have taken 

 it on sunny December days at 4U0O feet. 



Vanessa c-album, Linn. 



A single, rather worn specimen was included in the collection, 

 which, until we know more of the Himalayan varieties, I prefer to 

 call F. c-album. It is certainly much nearer to Amur specimens of 

 F. c-nlbum than to what I have from Mr. ^loore as typical F ar/nicida. 

 I have only seen one specimen from Sikkim before, which differed 

 from this one; and four others which I possess from various parts of 

 the Himalaya differ from each other as much as a similar number 

 of European specimens from various localities do. Unfortunatelv, 

 I have but fifty specimens in all of this group — not a tithe of what 

 would be required to illustrate it properly ; but the more I see, the 

 more impossible it seems to define them clearly. I should be much 

 obliged to any entomologist for the loan of local series showing the 

 amount of variation in different localities ; but, so far as I can see at 

 present, no one can say to what species a given specimen of any of 

 the;e forms belongs, unless he was told where it came from ; and if 

 that be so, what more is necessary to prove my theory? 



Argynnis altissima, n. sp. (Plate XXV. fig. 8.) 



Of this species I received ten specimens, all of which, as well as 

 I can judge in the somewhat crushed state of their bodies, are males. 

 Nine of them agree very well in size and pattern ; but the tenth 

 is at least a quarter larger in size, and has the wings broader and less 

 pointed. In fact it has the appearance of a less alpine variety than 



