COMMON BUTTERFLIES 01 THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 331 



rely upon " Poona " as given by Captain Evans (probably upon the 

 authority of Colonel Swinhoe) as a possible habitat of A. indra 

 (form sliivct, Swinhoe). On the whole evidence seems to point to 

 the fact that the Group Gatopliaga consists of four Indian species 

 paulina, gcdathea, albina and Colonel Bingham's leis-ioardi. We 

 shall only be able to get at definite truth by breeding the different 

 forms. 



This has been a somewhat long digression from the strict limits. 

 of the subject insects of this paper, but the matter seemed worth 

 considering even though no definite result is reached ; every 



little helps. 



101. Appias libythea. — Wet-season brood. — Male, upperside: pure white. 

 Forewing : costa, apex and termen anteriorly very narrowly sliaded with 

 dusky black scales, the black colour produced very finely along the veins 

 for a short distance ; the rest of the veins white. Underside : pure white, 

 the black colour merely indicated along the costa and at apex. Female,. 

 upperside : white. Forewing : costa, the apex and termen very widely and 

 the discoidal cell dusky black, the black in the cell produced in a broad 

 streak to the black on the termen so as to leave only a short, oval, oblique 

 bar of the ground-colour beyond the cell ; the black on the terminal por- 

 tion of the wing narrows posteriorly and has its inner margin irregular ; on 

 the posterior, inner portion of the wing also there is a somewhat diffuse, 

 dusky black streak from base, narrowed outwardly and not extended to 

 the black on the terminal margin. Hindwing, terminal margin more or 

 less broadly black ; a shading of dusky black scales that forms a diffiise, 

 sub-costal streak fram base and another, more diffuse, obscure streak across 

 the disc that leaves between it and the dark, terminal margin, a series of, 

 posteriorly, very ill-defined markings of the white ground-colour which 

 decrease in size up to interspace 6. Underside : white with similar mark- 

 ings that are, however, more difluse. Forewing with the black along the 

 terminal margin interrupted by a series of streaks of the white gound- 

 colour in the interspaces. Hindwing with the black scaling along the 

 terminal margin very faint, the dusky shading on the basal and discal areas 

 of the wing as on the upperside, but more or less obsolescent ; a faint tinge 

 of yellow on the humeral angle. Antennse in both sexes dusky-black, 

 obscurely spotted with white ; head, thorax and abdomen above bluish 

 white ; beneath white. 



Dry-season brood. — Male : similar, but the narrow, black markings on the 

 forewing still more restricted. Female also similar, but the black mark- 

 ings on the upperside on the forewing restricted to the upper part of the 

 cell, and the markings on the costa, the apex of the wing and the termen 

 altogether much narrower than in the wet-season form. On the hind- 

 wing the markings are restricted to a narrow, macular band along the 

 termen with mere indications of a dusky, detached streak in the middle 

 of the disc. Underside : white in both sexes ; apex of the forewing and 

 the whole of the hindwing with an ochraceous tint. In the female the 

 black markings of the upperside show through by transparency. Anten- 

 nae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the wet-season form. Expanse 

 54-66 mm. 



Effff. — Is of the usual pierid type, like a short-necked bottle. The longi- 

 tudinal ribs are 10 in number, thin and distant from each other about -^- the 

 width of the somewhat concave intervals between them : every two an- 

 astomose just at their upper ends and reach the top of the egg as a minute 

 single point or tooth, there being thus a narrow ring of five teeth as a 

 15 



