308 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX 



of Asiatic Hesperiidse (J. B. N. H. S. IX. 436), he repeated these three 

 species and again in his account of the butterflies of the Chin Hills (J. E. 

 N. H. S. X. 681), where he says that his identification may be wrong, but 

 he is sure that there are three species and also a fourth unnamed, perhaps 

 Swinhoe's ottala ; in his list of the butterflies of Myingyan (J. A. S. B. 

 1897) he gives mcesoides and another species. DeNiceville in the Gazetteer 

 of Sikkim (1894) and in the butterflies of Mussoorie (J. B. N. H. S. XI. 

 600) gives mcesoides and dara separately : later (J. A. S. B. 1897) he says 

 mcssoides^=dara. Elwes and Edwards in their revision of the Oriental 

 Hesperiidse say that they have examined the genitalia of 18 specimens 

 and conclude that there is only one species, dara. Swinhoe now asks us 

 to accept 5 species and quotes Doherty as saying that the genitalia of 

 dara and mcesoides are very difi'erent and that the former is greenish, the 

 latter tawny below. 



Until lately I had placed all my 31 specimens over the label dara, but 

 on reading Swinhoe's descriptions I set to and examined the genitalia of 

 all my 23 males and find that I have 5 species, though I have failed to 

 recognise ottala. 



(a) Tropica satra I have from Ceylon and the Andamans. The clasp 

 ends in a broadly triangular point, thus A , very diflerent to the rest 

 of the group ; the tegumen tapers to a blunt point. It is a small insect 

 with the yellow discal band confluent on both wings, not separated by 

 brown veins ; the ceU of the forewing is yellow with a short central, not 

 upper, basal brown streak. 



(6) Next come two males from Mussoorie and Chitral, which I had 

 thought were typical dara, but they fall under Swinhoe's nala, Plotz. On 

 the forewing the orange spots are small and separated by brown veins ; 

 the spots in 4 and 5 are projected outwards and completly separated from 

 the apical and discal series. On the hindwing there is a small spot in 7 

 and a larger one belovv^ in 6, while in the other species of the group there 

 is rarely one in 6, though usually a spot in 7. The most important dift'- 

 erence is in the cilia, which are of an even length throughout, the long 

 hairs being very pale yellow and the short hairs brown ; in the other 

 members of the group the cilia are prominently lengthened at the anal 

 angle, the long hairs being yellow and the short hairs bright orange. The 

 genitalia resemble those of the next two species ; the clasp is thus ^ , 

 deeply excavated in the middle and sharply pointed at the outer edge ; 

 the tegumen tapers towards the apex, ending in an enlarged knob. 



(c) Sf {d) Of the remainder all but (e) fall into two species both as 

 regards genitalia and facies. In (c) the apex of the tegumen is very 

 wide and usually excavated in the middle ; in (d) it is sharply pointed at 

 the apex. The clasp in (c) is shaped thus (^ , the point being sharp 

 and curving over towards the tegumen ; in (d) the clasp is the same as in 

 nala. In (c) the band on the hindwing is not divided into spots by the 

 veins in either sex and on the forewing the spots in 4 and 5 are usually 

 jointed to the apical and always to the discal series ; in (d) the discal 

 band on the hindwing is always divided into spots by brown veins and on 

 the forewing the spots in 4 and 5 are never joined to the apical and often 

 not to the discal series especially in the females. I have one specimen of 

 (c) from the Palnis and several from Sikkim, Assam and Burma ; (d) I have 

 from Ceylon, the Palnis, Central Provinces, Assam and Burma. In size 

 and general appearance the two are very similar ; the undersides are 

 extremely variable and do not serve to separate them. From Swinhoe's 

 account of their distribution, (c) would appear to be dara and (d) mcesoides, 

 though, as I mentioned above, I am not sure that Kollar's dara is not 



