170 



chief difference being the under side, which is not so lilacine. 

 Brisbane to Port Darwin : from December to March ;: 

 also India, Borneo, etc. 



104. P. contempta, Herr. Sch. 



Ismene contempta, Herr.-Sch., M.S.S., Plotz, S.E.Z., vol. 

 xlv., p. 56, n. 1167, 1886 (nee contempta), Herr.-Sch. 



6 9 > 46-50 mm. Head, thorax, and abdomen brownish- 

 fuscous, more or less clothed with greenish-golden hairs ; 

 thorax and abdomen beneath whitish-ochreous ; face ochreous ; 

 palpi dark- fuscous above, ochreous- whitish beneath. Legs 

 ochreous, fuscous-tinged. Forewings elongate, triangular; 

 costa nearly straight ; termen straight, oblique ; light- 

 brownish ochreous, darker on median portion of wings; basal 

 pairs greenish-golden; markings in 9 as * n chromus, some- 

 times the spot between veins 2 and 3 is absent or scarcely 

 perceptible above; apical spot well developed; stigma in J 

 as in chromus; cilia fuscous, terminal half whitish. Hind- 

 wings with termen somewhat produced on vein 1 ; colour, 

 basal pairs and cilia as in forewings ; under-side of both 

 wings ochreous-fuscous; forewings washed with dull-purplish 

 along costa and upper § of termen, latter portion limited by 

 an obscure violet-whitish streak, angulated near costa; mark- 

 ings of upper-side of 9 reproduced ; dorsum broadly dull- 

 ochreous whitish, limited by vein 1 ; a small similarly- 

 coloured patch above anal angle. Hind wings with the 

 purplish better developed; a broad transverse white fascia 

 about 2 to 2 J mm. wide at greatest width, inner edge more 

 irregular than in chromus, yet similar, from costa at § to 

 vein 1 b : a large patch of black on dorsum at anal angle ; 

 an obscure whitish streak along vein \a to base; a small 

 white patch on dorsum, just above anal angle ; cilia as 

 above; blackish at anal angle and with a fine white basal line 

 between veins lb and 3. 



This species appears constantly distinct from chromus by 

 the different ground-colour of wings above, otherwise it is a 

 close ally of that species ; indeed, specimens of chromus from 

 New Guinea, identified as such by Colonel Swinhoe, are 

 scarcely perceptibly different, and personally I consider the 

 single specimen submitted to him is contempta. The under- 

 side of the abdomen of the present species is ochreous-fuscous; 

 in chromus, including the Indian specimens, it is fuscous,, 

 with the segmental margins distinctly whitish or white. 

 Whether this peculiarity is of any practical utility in separ- 

 ating the two species remains to be seen. I would not insist 

 on the point, although it is quite constant in all the speci- 

 mens before me. Plotz's drawing of the 9 (No. 1167) does 



