NOTES ON BUTTERFLIES OF ADEN. 209 



Tdmnas alcippus, Cramer, Pap. Exot., vol. ii, pi. cxxvii, figs. E, F 



(1779). 



Limnasdorippus, King, Syst. Phys., pi. 48, figs. 1-4 (1845). 

 Limnas hlugii, Butler, P. Z. S., 1885, p. 758. 

 I have lumped these four forms together, as however good species 

 they may be elsewhere, at Aden they are only varieties. I have 

 taken them " in coitu" in every possible combination, and have reared 

 a considerable number of caterpillars, with the result of having 

 obtained L. chrysippus^ intergrades to L. alcippus, L. dorippus, and 

 L. hlugii. I could not detect the slightest difference between the^ 

 larvEe that produced these different results. The pupae are dichroic, 

 green and light purple, and are very beautiful, looking as if they had 

 been carved out of the wax tapers used to decorate Christmas trees. 

 I lost a great number of larvas from the attacks of a large dipterous 

 parasite, one of the Tachinince. All the larvaj reared wei-e found 

 on Calotropis gigantea. 



I imagined that the forms which have white on the hindwing, i.e., 

 L. alcippus and L. dorippus, had become more common in 1883-84 

 than they had been when I was first quartered in Aden in 1869-70. 

 The fact that the original L. dorippus of King had white on the hind- 

 wing appears to have been overlooked, until the receipt of my Aden 

 collections at the British Museum caused the matter to be looked into. 

 L. hlugii is as worthy of specific rank as L. alcippus or L. dorippus, as 

 it bears the same relations to L. dorippus that L. chrijsippus does to 

 L. alcippus, but that the four forms are (anywhere) anything more 

 than varieties I do not for an instant believe. I took a single 

 specimen of L. hlugii near Foul Point (the opposite side of the outer 

 harbour at Trincomali) on the 15th April, 1891, its first record, I 

 believe, in Ceylon. 



Subfamily— Sai^WnflP. 



2. Melanitis ismene, Cramer, Pap. Exot, vol. i, pi. xxvi, figs. A, 

 B (1775). Common at Lahej, rare in Aden. 



3. Ypthima asterope, Klug, Symb. Phys., pi. xxix, figs. 11-14 

 (1832). Common at Lahej, fairly common in Aden. The Aden 

 specimens are small, very dark, and with small ocelli. The Lahej 

 form, on the other hand, is large, pale, and with large ocelli. 



