MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



587 



No. XXL— A NOTE ON ARGYNNIS CASTETSI. 



Argynnis castetsi, Oberthiir, which occur only in the Palni Hills in 

 South India, is usually considered to be a well differentiated race of the 

 widely distributed Ar(jynnis hyperhius, Johansson. It differs from the 

 type form mainly in that the female, as regards colour and markings, re- 

 sembles somewhat the female of such a species as Argynnis aglaia and in 

 consequence the striking sexual dimorphism exhibited by hyperhius. is 

 wanting. 



In April 1912, owing to the kindness of Mr. Y. Evershed of Kodaikanal, 

 who forwarded ova of castetsi to Ceylon, I was given the opportunity of 

 comparing the larvse of the two races, and somewhat to my surprise found 

 that they could be easily separated. A brief description of a full grown 

 larvse of A. hyperhius from Ceylon is as follows: — 



Head. — Black ; oval in shape with a pronounced frontal furrow or de- 

 pression ; on each side of the furrow on the vertex of the head is a conical 

 prominence bearing a stout spine hair ; number of small black hairs are 

 scattered over the whole surface. 



Thoracic and ahdominal regions. — The ground colour of the body is velvety 

 black with the exception of a broad dorsal stripe which is fulvous red. 

 On each side of the thoracic segments is a pair of black spiny processes, 

 one process being situated to the side of the dorsal line and the other 

 supra-spiracular in position. On the abdominal segments there are two 

 pairs of spiny processes situated as on the thoracic segments and also a 

 third pair, each process being sub-spiracular in position. These abdominal 

 processes are red or fulvous red tipped with black. 



The legs are black but the "suckers" of the prologs are red as also are 

 the anal valves. [The length of this specimen was 38 mm.] 



A. hyperhius. 



A. castetsi. 



The larvee of A. castetsi resembles that of hyperhius in general structure 

 but differs constantly in the following particulars : — 



(1) the red dorsal stripe is entirely absent ; 



(2) the processes on the abdominal segments are pink ; 



(3) the form is somewhat more slender. 



The most . reliable character is the presence or absence of the dorsal 

 stripe which appears at a very early ago, at once distinguishing hyperhius 

 from the allied form. 



