SPJECIES OF THE GENUS MYCALESIS IN INDIA, 357 



is probably impossible to evolve any theory to account for the development of 

 the very closely allied species of the Cahjsisme group, but something on the fol- 

 lowing lines may have taken place, perseus and 7nineus I take to be the oldest, 

 the former having remained pretty constant and not developed into other 

 species, mineusis an insect of the plains and in the dim distant past it developed 

 into 2 races (a) and (b) whose areas became cut o£f but again became re-united after 

 sufficient time had elapsed to establish the races as species, mineus (a) preferred 

 the plains, while mmeus (b) preferred the hills, where, as these elevations became 

 elevated and separated from one another, it developed into a number of local 

 races, say b' to b". Eventually changes in the earth's crust, temperature, etc., 

 permitted these races to extend into one another's area; some no doubt re-united, 

 while others led a separate existence, entitUng them to be ranked as species 

 mineus hl^siibdita developed in Ceylon, whence it has spread to the continent, 

 where it refuses to interbreed with its cousins, but finds it difficult to maintain 

 its existence in face of the competition prevaHing. mineus h'-=igilia, h^^mercea 

 and h^=perseoides have not spread into other areas, but refuse to interbreed 

 with their invading relations, mineus h'^visala developed in Sikkim and has 

 successively invaded the Central Provinces, but its penetration eastwards has 

 not met with the same success, mineus h''^=khasia developed perhaps in Assam, 

 whence it has very successfully invaded S. India and Burma. It is the most 

 abundant species as far as my experience goes. 



7. Regarding the plates .• they have been drawn by mj'self and are , I am 

 afraid, very crude. The intention of the plates showing venation is only to illus- 

 trate the features mentioned in the key ; no other conclusions should be drawn 

 from them. A study of the plates depicting the genitaha will, I think, be worth- 

 while ; they bear out to a certain extent Moore's subgenera and the arrangement 

 adopted in my key. Where more than one example for a species has been taken, 

 it must not always be assumed that the genitaha differ with the locahty, as may 

 seem to be indicated by the drawings ; I have tried to represent, as far as pos- 

 sible, the variations that occur in the species ; in some instances, however, there 

 is no doubt that the locaUty does affect the genitaha very considerably. In some 

 species, e.g., nicotia, the clasps vary very considerably with individuals, but the 

 tegumen and the hooks are pretty constant. The difference in the hooks between 

 the closely aUied malsara and lepcha is very noticeable, beihami and davisonii have 

 clasps more related to nmmerta than to lepcha, whose genitalia differ greatly with 

 the locality, but their facies lead me to regard them as races of lepcha. The 

 teeth at the upper edge of the clasp are much finer ui malsara than in lepcha. The 

 clasp of mnasicles and the hooks of patnia are very extraordinary. It will be 

 seen that the Cahjsisme group is a very definite one and, as one might imagme 

 from their facies, the clasps resemble one another very closely, except ihsA, evansii 

 is very distinct, igilia and mineus are aUied to one another and well distinguish- 

 ed from the rest, subdita from its clasp is easily distinguished from the otherwise 

 almost inseparable orcha. The clasp of perseoides is variable and approaches 

 that of visala, it is curious how very different the clasp of imjstes is to any member 

 of the Calysisme group though females are quite difficult to separate. 



8. The following abbreviations have been used in the key :— 

 A, B, C refer to the secondary sexual characters, see para 3. 

 V refers to the venation. v'=vein No. 1. 



f=forewing and h=hindwing. j . • j • 



upf, unf, uph, unh,=upper and underside of the forewing and hmdwmg res- 

 pectively. 



DSF & WSF=dry and wet season forms. 



dcv^=discocellular vein. 



The figures given after the locahties represent the average expanse in mohes 

 and decimals of an inch of males and females respectively. 



