MELA2TJTIS. 



159 



on the underside, showing through. Underside paler, densely 



covered with transverse dark brown 

 striae ; a discal curved dark brown 

 narrow band on fore wing ; a post- 

 discal similar oblique band, followed 

 by a series of ocelli : four on the fore 

 wing, that in interspace 3 the largest ; 

 six on the hind wing, the apical and 

 subtorual the largest. 



Dry-season form. — $ $ . Fore 

 wing : apex obtuse and more or less 

 falcate ; termen posterior to falcation 

 straight or sinuous. Upperside : 

 ground-colour similar to that in the 

 wet-season form, the markings, 

 especially the ferruginous lunules 

 inwardly bordering the black sub- 

 apical spots on fore wing, larger, 

 more extended below and above the 

 black costa. Hind wing : the ocellus in interspace 2 absent, pos- 

 teriorly replaced by three or four minute white subterminal spots. 

 Underside varies in colour greatly, as noted above in the remarks 

 under generic characters. Antennas, head, thorax and abdomen 

 in both seasonal forms brown or greyish brown ; the antennas 

 annulated with white, ochraceous afc apex. 

 Exp. 6 2 "0-80 mm. (2-78-3-15"). 



Hah. Has an immense range. Found in Africa from south of a 

 line between Ashanti on the "West coast to Abyssinia on the East. 

 It occurs also in Madagascar, Mauritius and Bourbon ; while from 

 all over the Indo-Malayan Region down to Australia one or other 

 of the local races of this insect has been recorded. 



Larva. " Long, slender, somewhat fusiform, rough ; terminal 

 segment armed with two divergent setose fleshy processes " 

 {Moore). " Colour grass-green with a yellow lateral line and many 

 rows of small white spots, with the horn and a continuing cheek- 

 stripe red, and three black spots on the face, but sometimes the 

 head and horns are dark brown with three white spots on the 

 face " (Aiiken). " Feeds on grasses " (Moore). 



Pupa. "Thick, smooth, abdomen dorsally convex; head-case 

 terminating in an obtuse point in front ; colour pale watery green 

 without markings " (Moore). 



192. Melanitis bela, Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C. i, 1857, p. 223 ; 



M . Sf de N. Butt. Ind. i, 1883, p. 254 ; Moore, Lep. Ind. ii, 

 1893-96, p. 128, pi. 126, figs. 1, la-le, J $ . 

 Cyllo aswa, Moore, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 769 S \ M. § de N. (Melanitis) 

 Butt Ind. i, 1883, p. 253 ; Ehves, Trans. Ent. Soe. 1888, p. 329. 



Race varaha. 



Melanitis varaha, Moore, Cat. Lep. Mus. E. I. C. i, 1857, p. 224 ; 

 M. $ de N. Butt. Ind. i, 1883, p. 256: Moore, Lep. Ind. ii, 

 1893-96, p. 131, pi. 127, figs. 1, 1 a-1 d, & pi. 128, figs. 1 a-lf, 

 6 2- 



