482 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIIL 



curved wMcli distinguishes it at once from the female of C. etrida, with 

 which it might easily be confounded, this border being always straight in 

 this latter species ; also the preapical black spot (often a short bar) on 

 upperside of hind wing is much more oblique than in etrida female, pointing 

 towards the end of cell instead of straight downwards towards the outer 

 disc of wing as in that species. 



It has been said, under Pieris brassicce, that no records of the earlier 

 stages are known and that it is somewhat doubtful whether it is a Plains in- 

 sect or not. This has elicited, from Mr. T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, Govern- 

 ment Entomologist of the Agricultural Department at Pusa, the inform- 

 ation that the butterfly has been reared in the Plains at Pusa and that " it 

 occurs within about 100 miles of the Himalayas in Eastern and North 

 Bengal, Bihar, the United Provinces and the Punjab." 



Family — Lyc^nid^. 



This family of butterflies is composed of small to medium sized insects of 

 which many are some shade of blue on the upperside, the males being gene- 

 rally brighter coloured than the females ; some species are brown, others 

 opper coloured, black, green (none in these papers however) or white and 

 are often banded, striped, mottled or suffused. They all have the great 

 advantage to classification or recognition of invariably being marked alike 

 on the underside in both sexes whatever the difference in colour of the 

 upperside so that there is little difiiculty in connecting the males and 

 females of any particular species. The shade of the underside ground- 

 colour may differ somewhat but the markings never. 



A. — Hind wing without tail or lobe of any sort, (see 

 PI. H, fig. 56). 



a. Underside white, silvery white or light grey. 



a}. Size 1'5" to 2": male upperside with 

 the ground-colour orange-red, the fe- 

 male with the ground-colour white . . Curetis ( PL H, fig. 



56cJ,56« $.) (17). 

 i\ Size smaller: at most 1*36". 



a^. Upperside blue, at least towards 

 bases of wings, underside white 

 spoted with black (in akasa, Horsf. 

 there is very little blue sometimes : 

 it is more greyish) . . . . . . Lyccenopsis. (4) 



U^. Upperside dark brown or black 

 without any blue ; underside white 

 or greyish-white, spotted with 

 brown or black. 



«', Underside, fore wing : pure 



white with the cell unmarked.. NeopitJiecops . (1) 

 P. Underside, fore wing: greyish- 

 white with a single, dark dot 

 in the cell . . . . . . Megisba. (3) 



This represents the untailed form of Megisba ; for 

 the tailed form see under C. The amount of blue on 

 the uppersides of Lyccenopsis varies with the species : 

 in the females it is always confined to the bases of the 

 wings and there is always a large, white, discal area. 



b. Underside some shade of brown as ground- 

 colour, often very light. 



a}. Underside, both wings : brownish- 

 white crossed by numerous, transverse, 

 darker brown strigte . . . . . . Spalffis. (2) 



