270 MESSES. H. J. ELWBS AND JAMES EDWARDS : 



Parnara. 



Parnara, Moore, Lep. Cey. i. p. 166 (1881) ; Watson, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 103. Type guttatus, Brem. 



Chapra, Moore, t. c. p. 169. Type mathias, Fab. 



Baoris, Moore, t. c. p. 165; Watson, t. c. p. 106. Type nceia, Hew. 



Caltoris, Swinhoe, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lend. 1893, p. 323. 



Body robust, fore wing pointed, upperside brown mth a few white or yellowish- 

 white spots. Antennee as long or longer than half the costa ; club moderate ; apiculus 

 distinct, as long or longer than the greatest width of the club. Palpi : second joint 

 densely scaled ; third joint obtuse, very short, and almost concealed. Fore wing with 

 a series of bare (and therefore hyaline) white spots, of which the position and full 

 complement is as follows : — one each, decreasing in size, near the bases of cells 2, 3, 

 and 4 ; one each, of nearly equal size, in cells 6, 7, and S ; and two near the apex of 

 the cell ; sometimes there is a white spot in cell 1 a, but this does not properly belong 

 to the hyaline series, as it is not usually bare on the underside, but is represented 

 there by a suffused whitish spot ; it does not appear that there is ever a pale spot in 

 cell 5, except in P. heavani and the female of P. assamensis ; the pale spot in cell 4 is 

 normally always present, its absence occurs most frequently in P. oceia ; vein 5 arises 

 much nearer 4 than (J, and curves upward from the base, and vein 2 arises at about the 

 half-length of the cell. Hind wing: sometimes with a series of white spots, but 

 without any pattern on tlie underside, save a row of spots : vein 2 from the apical 

 fourth of the cell, vein 5 obsolete. Legs as in Gegenes. 



Zelleri, Led., tulsi, de Nicev., and ccerulescens, Mab., are true Parnaras in venation. 

 P. pugnans, de Nicev., has vein 2 of the fore wing arising from near the basal third of 

 the cell. 



The generic term Parnara, as here used, includes Parnara proper, Chapra and Baoris, 

 Moore, and Caltoris, Swinhoe. Distant and Watson use Baoris in the same sense, but 

 as the tirst three names are synchronous in publication, and both Baoris and Chapra 

 were definitely limited by their author to species possessing a certain kind of alar 

 sex-mark in the male, we prefer the term Parnara on the ground that it was not so 

 limited, and that it has been in use for the majority of the species for a long time. 

 The presence or absence of some of the pale spots on the wings is a very useful 

 character for the separation of species in this difficult genus, particularly when it is 

 correlated with differences in the male genitalia. In the species of the oceia group, 

 however, the number of the pale spots has proved perfectly unreliable as a distinctive 

 character, but this fact does not affect the utility of the character where other species 

 are concerned. It has not been found practicable to form any linear arrangement of 

 the species which shall satisfactorily indicate their natural affinities inter se, but the 

 consecutive arrangement here adopted will probably be found as useful as any other 

 yet proposed. 



