578 



NOTES ON COORG BUTTERFLIES WITH A DETAILED 

 LIST OF THE HESPERIIDAE. 



F. Hannyngton, I.C.S., F.Z.S. 



The little Province of Coorg harbours practically all the known species 

 of Southern Indian butterflies with the exception of the Nilgiri palaearctic 

 survivals, the Travancore Parantirrhma and. a few local races. 



The climate is of the usual Western Ghats type, an excessively hot moist 

 belt running along the western foot of the Ghats which rise rapidly to 

 4,000 and 5,000 feet. East of their summits, there is a fairly gradual fall 

 towards Mysore, till the evergreen jungle of the upper basin of the Cauvery 

 blends with the dry deciduous vegetation of the Mysore plateau. 



While the commoner forms may be said to be on the wing all the year 

 round, there is enough seasonal variation in temperature and humidity to 

 restrict most of the rarer species to a dry and a wet season brood. This 

 is however not always the ease. In April the air, though not containing 

 enough moisture to give rain at low levels, becomes saturated in rising 

 over the Ghats and produces a peculiar belt of thunderstorm rainfall along 

 their eastern slopes. 



This induces a good number of the rarer species to hatch. out, so that 

 May and October may be looked upon as the most likely months in which 

 to find the characteristic forms of the wet season brood — or broods. 

 During the intervening months the monsoon is usually too heavy to permit 

 of much collecting in the evergreen belt. 



The following are the totals of the various families and sub-families of 



The ten species of Danainae found in Coorg offer nothing worthy of note 

 except that Eupl. kollari, Feld., and E. coreta, God., are decidedly rarer 

 here than in the Nilgiris. 



Among the Satyrinae, Zipoetis saitis, Hew., occurs fairly commonly on all 

 the western slopes during the monsoon and more rarely in January. 



Ypthima chenui, Kir., and Mycalesis adolphei, Gvier., would appear to reach 

 their northern limit in Coorg. Both are extremely local and are only to 

 be found on or n'ear the summits of the highest range of Western Ghats. 

 Y. chenui I have only found on the summit of Swamibetta or Somamalai 

 (5,265 feet). The locality ' Mangalore ' given in Evans' list for M. adolphei 

 is almost certainly wrong : it is exclusively a hill species and I only have 

 it from Tadiandamo) (5,724 feet) and Swamibetta. 



