130 

 THE BUTTERFLIES OF KUMAUN. 



BY 



F. Hannyngton, I.C.S. 



(With a Map.) 



Introduction. 



The Kumauu Division, comprising the Districts of Almora, Naini 

 Tal and Garhwal, is bounded on the north by Tibet, on the south by 

 the Pilibhit, Bareilly, Moradabad and Bijnor Districts, on the east by 

 Nepal, and on the west by the Native State of Tehri Garhwal and the 

 Dehra Dun and Bijnor Districts. For entomological purposes it may 

 be roughlv divided into 3 areas : — 



(1) Tropical from 1,000-2,000 ft. above sea-level. 



(2) Sub-Tropical and Temperate from 2,000-9,000 ft. above 



sea-level, comprising the greater part of Kumaun and 

 consisting of a series of ranges and peaks intersected by 

 deep valleys. 



(3) Alpine and Sub-Alpine from 9,000 ft. up to the snow- 



line. 



The first region with a purely artificial boundary on the south 

 abounds with forms to be met with in the plains together with a fair 

 number of endemic forms ; the second contains by far the larger 

 number of species herein enumerated while the third is the home of 

 the palsearctic forms dependent for their food-supply on the shrubs 

 and grasses between the. tree-limit and the region of perpetual snow. 



While containing so far as -I have been able to determine, no 

 species of butterfly peculiar to itself, Kumaun forms a most interesting 

 connecting link from an entomological point of view between the 

 Sikkim forms on the one hand and the purely N. W. Himalayan forms 

 on the other. Of the three districts, Garhwal has been far less 

 thoroughly worked than Naini Tal or Almora and parts of it are still 

 more or less a terra incognita to the naturalist. The only previous list 

 of the butterflies of this region extant to my knowledge is the one 

 compiled by Doherty in 1886 and published in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume LV, part 2. This list is probably 

 inaccessible to the majority of readers of this Journal: it includes a 

 number of species now generally recognised as local races of more 



