80 LEPIBOFTERA INBICA. 



except in Ceylon, the Nicobars and tbe Malay Peninsula, J. almana is found wherever 

 J. asterle occurs ; and from observations I have made on the time of appearance of 

 the two forms, I have found that J. almana is the prevailing form in the dry-season, 

 while /. astcrie abounds in the wet-season, the times of appearance and periods of 

 existence occasionally overlap somewhat ; a worn /. aJmana may be found early in 

 the rains, or a J. asterie now and then in the early winter, but speaking generally, 

 the summer brood is /. asterie, and the winter brood is /. ahnana, and it is very 

 probable that further investigation will reveal that they are merely seasonal forms of 

 one and the same species. The two forms are variable also both in outline of the 

 wings and in the markings of the underside: in some specimens of /. «sime the 

 forewing is almost as truncate, and the hindwing as prominently tailed, as in 

 J. almana, while the ocelli on the underside are very inconstant ; they vary much 

 in size, and in some specimens they are so pale and obscure as to be barely traceable, 

 and it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which form these intermediate speci- 

 mens belong. The absence of J. almana from the localities noted above, if it be a 

 fact, might be accounted for by the seasons in those parts being moi'e equable and 

 more uniforml^^ moist throughout the year ; but the question of the distinctness or 

 otherwise of the two forms can only be satisfactorily settled by a series of experi- 

 ments in breeding them. /. asterie is a common butterfly throughout the tract of 

 heavy rainfall, and is abundant where it occurs ; it frequents gardens and glades in 

 jungles, but shuns the bare open plains " (de Xiceville, Butt. Ind. ii. p. 68). Col. 

 J. W. Yerbury records the capture of Ahnajia at Attock, north-west of Campbellpur, 

 in March, and at Hurripur in October. Asterie was taken at Khairabad, opposite 

 Attock across the Indus, in April, May, and July, and at Campbellpur in May, and 

 at Hassan Abdal in May " (Ann. N. H. 1888, p. 141.) Both Almana and Asterie 

 are found in the Sarju and Kali Valleys, 2000 to 4000 feet elevation, iu Kumaon, 

 and in the Tarai. The prehensores are the same in both. I have no doubt that the 

 former is the dry-season form and the latter the 2ret form. Colonel C. Swiuhoe 

 remarks that " J. almana is common everywhere, in Bombaj' and the Deccan, all 

 the year round, J. asterie is common in the latter half of the year. I am convinced 

 that, although the types of each are so different, they are both one and the same 

 insect, one being the normal and the other the dimorphic form, and I have a long 

 series of examples showing every stage of variety between the two " (P. Z. S. 1885, 

 128). We possess a male, taken at Poona in March by Col. Swinhoe, which has the 

 outline of both wings less angulated than in the normal dry-season form (Almana) 

 and the colours and markings on the underside distinctly gradating to the wet- 

 season form. " /. asterie and J. ahnana, I am persuaded, are one and the same 

 species. In the Central Provinces they are found in glades and gardens by the 

 margins of streams and about tanks, and sits and fans its wings in the sunshine. 



