1886.] W. Doherty — A List of Butterflies taken in Kumaon. 105 



that of Vanessa kaschmirensis, whicli I found in the Kali and Sarju 

 valleys at less than 2,500 feet, and again at the summit of the Lepu Lek 

 Pass over 18,000 feet above the sea. 



As I spent less than six months in Kumaon, I cannot be sure 

 how many broods of butterflies occur there, or in what months they 

 appear. So far as my four years' experience goes, there are four 

 broods of Indian tropical and subtropical butterflies ; two in the wet 

 season — in May or June and in August or early September, and two 

 in the dry season — in October or late in September and in the first 

 warm weather of March — respectively. These periods vary in different 

 localities, the amount of the rainfall being the chief cause of change. 

 In Kumaon, the second wet-season brood, a numerous one, appeared 

 from the middle to the end of August, and the first dry- season brood, 

 Jess important, especially in the drier valleys, came out in the last week 

 of September, my first specimen of Mycalesis visala having been taken 

 September 22nd. In Travancore, there was a small brood of dry-season 

 forms early in March, and a very large one in the second week of May. 

 In Orissa and Ganjam, the first wet-season brood did not appear till the 

 end of July (the monsoon coming late that year), and was poor in 

 numbers. In the Ohittagong Hill Tracts, the last dry-season brood, 

 including a vast number of species and of specimens, appeared in the 

 middle of March, while the first wet-season brood, both there and in 

 Arakan, came out at the end of May, and was a very small one. At 

 Bassein, Burma, the first dry- season brood, which, as I have said, appeared 

 in Kumaon near the end of September, was delayed till the middle of 

 November. All butterflies do not have four broods. A few seem to 

 keep coming out at short intervals throughout the year, many are found 

 only in the wet season, and some perhaps only in the dry. It is said 

 that still others are found in but one month of the year, and so have 

 only one brood instead of four. Nevertheless, I think I may generalize 

 my experience into the brief statement that there are four broods, two 

 of the wet, two of the dry season, each of them simultaneous with, or 

 preceding by about a month, the beginning and the end of the season 

 after which I have named them. 



Between the two broods of dry-season butterflies (October and 

 March), and between the two broods of wet-season butterflies (May — June 

 and Aug. — Sept.), I have never observed any difference. But between 

 specimens of the wet and dry-season broods there are in many genera 

 very perceptible differences. There is a difference in size, the wet-season 

 specimens being usually smaller, and there are minor differences in the 

 angulation of the wings and in the tone and purity of the colouring be- 

 low. But the most remarkable difference is in the presence of large eye- 



