252 LEPIDOPTEBA INDICA. 



Expanse of wings, ^ $ 3 to 3-^q inches. 



Habitat. — Sikkim, Assam, Malayan Sub-region to Australia. 



A very variable form. The description given above is taken from Sikkim and 

 Assam specimens. Specimens from Malacca and south and east through the sub- 

 region have a decreasing amount of black colouring on the upperside. Australian 

 specimens have the least of all. 



In Australian specimens, too, the antennfe, the head, thorax and wings on the 

 upperside are covered often with a curious irregular irroration of white fugitive scales, 

 and the abdomen on both sides and beneath towards the apex, by a dense mass of brown 

 hair, each of which terminates in a flattened broad plume-like scale. (Bingham. ) 



Bingham's description is so good, we give it in extenso. Our male figure is from 

 a Sikkim example, our female from Felder's type. 



Egg. — Very unlike that of other Lycsenidse, but shows an unexpected resemblance 

 to that of Logania, Distant, and Taraka, Doherty, MS. It is of great size, green, 

 overlaid with white, shaped something like a section of a " drum " of a Doric column, 

 but somewhat widest at the base, the height, breadth at apex, and breadth at base 

 being to each other as 9, 13, and 15 J. The top is marked with hexagonal reticulations, 

 the lines turbinate in the middle, the margin deeply channelled, and then strongly 

 carinate, the carina projecting both upwards and outwards, white, its contour even. 

 Base also obscurely carinate. Sides crusted with white and minutely indented, with 

 about forty -five vertical ribs, slightly irregular and even (very rarely) anastomosing, 

 extending all over the outer part of the base, the inner part being green and minutely 

 reticulated with hexagons. 



Liphijra brassolis flies slowly, with a distinct humming sound, and an uncertain 

 circling flight, hesitating a long time before alighting. Whether it is, as it seems, a 

 protected species, or whether, as I believe, it flies chiefly at twilight and so escapes 

 capture, I do not know. No one would ever take it for a butterfly ; few moths are 

 more typically moth-like in flight. It is probably the oldest type of lycsenid existing, 

 and unconnected with the rest, except through such primitive dwarf forms as Taraka 

 and the smaller Gerydinse. It is the only Asiatic representative of the sub-family 

 Liphyrinse, and its nearest allies are apparently African. (Doherty, MS. de Niceville.) 



Sub-Family RURAL! N^. 



Eyes hairy. Forewing with veins 5 and 6 not approximate at base, 7 ends on the 

 costal margin at or before the apex of the wing, 8 absent. CaUojyhrys, Neolycsena and 

 Strymon have 2 sub-costal nervules, the others three. Hindwing with a filamentous 

 tail at the end of vein 2 absent in Callophrys and Neolycsena, no secondary sexual 



