SYNONYMY OF SOME SPECIES OF INDIAN PIERINZZ. 491 
There seems to be some confusion in the minds of naturalists at 
home as to what is meant by dry- and wet-seagon broods. Mr. Butler 
speaks of them quite wrongly as Spring and Autumn broods, and seems 
to be under the impression that there are only two broods annually, as 
he considers that an instance of the eggs of typical Terias hecabe pro- 
ducing typical T, hecabe proves that T. excavata or any other similar form 
cannot be the dry-season form of T. hecabe. He is however working on a 
wrong basis: 7’. hecabe has atleast four and probably more broods annu- 
ally, of which those individuals which emerge during the rainy-season 
would betypical 7. hecabe, but those which emerge during the dry-season 
would be 7. excavata or some other dry-season form, while there is no 
doubt that in some cases the eggs laid by one female would produce 
more than one form, according to the state of the atmosphere shortly 
before the emergence of each individual, which is the period at which 
it would be chiefly affected. Also the descendants of the first of the 
rainy-season broods would themselves be of the rainy-season form, and 
similarly the descendants of the first of the dry-season broods would be 
also of the dry-season form, and only the last of the wet- or dry-season 
broods would produce forms differing from themselves. To put down 
the broods of J. hecabe at four annually is a very moderate 
estimate, it is in fact probable that in the warmer regions there may be 
ten or even twelve broods a year, one brood following another without 
any break and in rapid succession. 
Another difficulty with which naturalists at home have to contend 
is that in different parts of the Indian region the seasons vary to a 
certain extent, so that it cannot be laid down as a fixed rule that 
specimens captured in any particular month will belong to any par- 
ticular form ; besides which allowance has to be made for breaks in the 
rains or showers in the dry-season; roughly however the rainy-season may 
be said to extend from the middle of May to the middle of November, 
and the dry-season for the rest of the year, and it will be found that 
the very large majority of the specimens obtained during these periods 
will be wet- and dry-season forms respectively. It will be seen from 
this how misleading are the terms Spring and Autumn forms, while 
the terms hot- and cold-season forms are equally inappropriate. The 
limitations given above are approximately those of the seasons in 
Burma, but they are liable to vary a fortnight either way, while in 
