THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XXIV.] OCTOBER, 1891. [No. 341. 



ON PYRAMEIS DEJEANIl^ 

 By J. Jenner Weir, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



The male of this insect is scarcely, if at all, distinguishable 

 from Pyrameis carclui ; the female, on the other hand, resembles 

 a faded P. atalanta, the red band on the fore wings of the latter 

 species being replaced in P. dejeanii by a creamy white one, and 

 the submarginal red of the lower wings in P. atalanta becomes 

 subdued in P. dejeanii to a dull brown, and the spots of black 

 are far more developed in size, but not quite so dark. 



That there should be so marked a difference between the 

 sexes in this insect is the more remarkable, because in the rest of 

 the species of the genus Pyrameis the difference between the 

 coloration of the sexes is very slight. In P. itea, P. hippomene, 

 P. callirhoe, P. cardui, P. kershawii, P. virginiensis, it is in- 

 appreciable, and in P. atalanta it consists in the female having a 

 white spot in the red band of the upper wings, which is absent 

 in the male, at least this is generally the case. 



P. dejeanii is found, I believe, in the island of Java only ; and 

 when, some years ago, I obtained a large number of butter- 

 flies from thence, I was struck by the dull appearance of them ; a 

 certain duskiness or, as I should term it, phseism seemed to be 

 characteristic of many species which had far more brilliantly 

 coloured allies both in Sumatra and the Asiatic continent ; for 

 instance, the dusky-coloured Salatura intensa of Java, as compared 

 with the brightly-coloured S. sumatrana of Sumatra, S. inter- 

 media of the Malay Peninsula, the typical S. genutia of con- 

 tinental India, and the white ground colour of S. edmondii of the 

 Philippines. 



So also the Salatura melanippus of Java, its very name 

 suggesting its phseism, as compared with the brightly-coloured 



* Abstract of a paper read before the South London Entomological and 

 Natural History Society, Aug. 13th, 1891. 



ENTOM. OCT. 1891. U 



