C6 LEPIDOPTERA INDICA. 



Distribution. — This is a local but well-marked species, peculiar to tlie liills iu 

 the south of the peninsula. It is common at Coonoor in July, and, according to 

 Mr. G. ^. Hampson (J. A. S. Beng. 1888, 347) is also " common throughout the 

 Nilgiris." General Evezard sent me specimens from the Shevaroy Hills. Mr. 

 Harold Fergusson records it (Butt. Ind. i. 44) as " not common in the winter in 

 Travancore ; it occurs on the hills (Annumali and Ashamboo) from 2000 feet upwards ; 

 throughout February it is tolerably common ; in April and May it was fairly common 

 above 3000 feet, and some specimens have been taken in June." It also has been 

 taken in Tinnevelly. 



Genus CHITTIRA. 



Ghittira, Moore, Lepidoptera of Ceylon, i. p. 8 (1880); id. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1883, p. 251. 

 Danais {Gliittira, Sect. B, part), Marshall and De Mceville, Butt, of India, &c., I. p. 42 (1882). 



Imago. — Foreioing somewhat short and broad ; costa much arched, hind margin 

 long ; discocellulars bent in the middle below the lower radial, and producing a short 

 spur within the cell from the angle. Eindwing broadly oval, very convex exteriorly. 

 Male with two siJatular-slia2)ecl ijatclies of scent-scales, one on the submedian vein, the 

 other which is the smallest, on the internal vein, and with less apparent spatular patch, 

 both traversed by a dilatation of the vein. Antennce with a tolerably thick club. 

 Palpi large, third joint pointed, very pilose above and beneath. 



This genus is confined to a single species, found only in the Island of Ceylon, 

 where it is found chiefly in the hilly forests. 



Peculiar Chaeacteristics of the G-exus. — It is a noticeable feature in Chittira 

 fumata that the underside of the wings have a similarity of the ground colours to 

 those prevailing in certain species of the group Euploeina — species, too, which do not 

 belong to the Indian fauna — namely, Framasa mitra, which is found only in the 

 Seychelle Islands, and in a somewhat lesser degree, Vonona Euphon, of the Mauri- 

 tius ; the former species {Pramasa mitra) especially having a similarly disposed shade 

 of intensified colour crossing the discal area of the hindwing, which peculiarity is 

 present, so far as I have observed, only in one other species of Limnaina — namely, 

 Badacara Nilgirie'iisis. Moreover, the white markings in Chittira are peculiarly its 

 own — the abnormally short cell-streak, the short subapical streaks, and the presence, 

 or more frequently obsolescence, of only a single very small discal spot between the 

 middle and upper median veinlets, the latter as generally prevailing on the forewing 

 of the scent-poucli hearing genus Salatura. It may, therefore, be reasonably presumed 

 that Chittira (and probably also Badacara) is an Eastern member of the characteristic 

 but numerically very resti'icted and doubtless ancient forms of this subfamily of 

 butterflies, which are confined to the granite-formed islands of the Seychelle Archi- 

 pelago, Mauritius, Bourbon, &c. The forms are Berethis plicedon of the group Lim- 

 naina, and Vonona Euphon, V. Goudotii, V. Desjardinsi, and Pramasa mitra, of the 



