A REVISION or THE OKIENTAL HESPERIID^. 209 



! Matapa aria. 



Jsmene aria, Moore, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 784. 



Matapa aria, Moore, Lep. Cey. vol. i. p. IGl, pi. Ixvi. figs. 1, 1 a (1881) ; Distant, Ehop. Mai. 

 p. 378, pi. XXXV. fig. 8 (1886) ; Watson, Hesp. Ind. p. 22. 



Hab. E. Pegu, Bali {Doherty); Andamans {de Roepstorff); Ganjam {Minchin); 

 N. Canara [Aitken) ; Java {Piepers) ; Philippines {Semper) ; Palawan (Platen). 



.'Matapa puepueascbns, n. sp. (Plate XX. fig. 1, 6 ; Plate XXIV. fig. 48.) 



c? . Upperside brown, with a purple shade which is strongest on the apical half of the 

 fore wing, sex-mark blackish. Underside brown, fore wing with the dorsum and apex 

 suffusedly paler. Fringe of the fore wing whitish grey, of the hind wing deep yellow 

 from the tornus about as far as vein 6, thence to the apex brown. Antennae brown, 

 spotted with yellowish beneath, club yellowish on the underside. Clothing of palpi, 

 body, and legs concolorous with the wings. 



Expanse 40 mm. 



Hab. Khasias [fTamiUon) ; E. Pegn (Boherty). 



Described from two males in coll. Elwes, where, however, there is no female which 

 can be certainly identified as the female of this species, although there are two purpu- 

 rascent females, one from Sikkim with the underside entirely pale grey-brown, and the 

 other from Tavoy with the underside as in M. druna ; both these females have the 

 clothing of the apex of the abdomen yellow. 



This species is nearest to M. druna, Moore, from which it differs in having a purple 

 shade on the fore wing above, and also in the clasp-form of the male. 



Doherty has sent from East Pegu no less than three species of this genus — purpu- 

 rascens, sasivarna, and shalgrama, and also a single female which does not agree with 

 any of those species ; it has not the purple shade on the upperside proper to purpu- 

 rascens, the underside is too pale and the yellow clothing of the apex of the abdomen 

 too extensive for sasivarna (of which, moreover, I have typical females from East Pegu), 

 and it has not the pale red-brown underside nor the brown clothing to the apex of the 

 abdomen proper to shalgrama ; its underside is pale grey-brown, and the clothing of 

 the abdomen beneath is orange-yellow through rather more than its apical third ; 

 the fringe of the hind wing is orange-yellow, passing into pale grey-brown next 

 cells 4-8 ; the colour of the hind wing below is uniform and not paler in the basal 

 third as usual in druna S , and the pubescence of the hind part of the thorax and of 

 the basal part of the hind wing above sbowa in certain lights a brilliant greenish-blue 

 colour. 



