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A LIST OF THE BUTTERFLIES OF MUSSOORIE IN 

 THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS AND • 

 NEIGHBOURING REGIONS. 



By Philip W. Mackinnon, F.E.S., and Lionel de Niceville, 



C.M.Z.S., F.E.S., etc. 



(With Plates U, V, and W.) 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 16th April, 1896.) 



Mussoorie (Misuri, Massuri or Mussooree), with its suburb containing 

 the military cantonment of Landour, is a hill station in the Dehra Dun 

 district of the North-Western Provinces. Unlike other hill stations or 

 towns of the Himalayas, such as Darjiling, Naini Tal, Simla, and Mur- 

 ree, Mussoorie is on the outer range of the hills, with only the valley of 

 the Dehra Dun (which is itself bounded on the south by the low 

 Siwalik hills) between it and the plains of India. Generally speaking, 

 the station is about 6,000 feet above sea-level, although in parts it is 

 7,400 feet high. Mussoorie being one of the — if not the — oldest hill 

 station in India, the forests which originally luxuriantly clothed nearly 

 all the hill-sides have ceased to exist, except in the western parts, and 

 as a natural result very few butterflies are to be seen in the central 

 portions. The anrelian or butterfly-hunter will still, however, find 

 almost all the ravines, especially those which carry perennial streams, 

 very rich in insects at any time from the middle of March to the end of 

 June, i.e., in the spring and dry (or hot) seasons, during which the rain- 

 fall is scanty. After June these ravines do not contain many butterflies, 

 being drenched by the heavy monsoon rainfall, which averages nearly 

 100 inches during the year, most of which falls from July to Septem- 

 ber. Practically collecting ends in and near Mussoorie in October, 

 but there is not a month in the year when a few species of butterflies 

 may not be seen on sunny days. In the winter Mussoorie is often 

 covered with snow, and the annual temperature ranges between 21° 

 and 80° Farh. at 6,000 feet elevation. To the north of Mussoorie, 

 running parallel to the range of hills on which the station is built, is the 

 valley of the Aglar, which is about 2,000 to 3,000 feet elevation only, 

 and in which butterflies are very numerous. To the north of this valley, 

 again, at about ten miles in a direct line from Mussoorie, is the Nag 

 Tiba range, the highest point of which is close on 10,000 feet. On 



