632 



HESPERIID^. 



spots of the fore wing being larger, paler, and more angular ; agrees therewith in the costal 

 area of the hind wing being pale brown above. 

 "Expanse, d 1-8-2-0, 5 2-1 inches." (Wood-Mason, I. c.) 



I have only one example of this species from China. It is a male agreeing 

 very well with Sikkim specimens of the same sex, and was taken by a native 

 collector at Omei-shan. 



Messrs. Wood-Mason and de Niceville in their remarks on P. straminei- 

 pennis observe : — " We have long known of the existence of two species of 

 the genus Pithauria occurring in almost equal profusion in Sikkim and 

 Bhutan, and we recently sent a male specimen of each to Mr. Moore to be 

 named in order that we might know for certain to which the term murdava 

 ought properly to be applied. Mr. Moore returned the dark one (which 

 agrees with his figure in the Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1878, pi. xlv. fig. 13) 

 labelled 'P. iiiurdava c? and the light one, our P. stramineipennis, 'P. murdava 

 2 .' In describing P. murdava, he does not give the sex of the typical 

 specimen, but his description, like his figure, applies best to the dark form. 

 Mr. Distant appears to have fallen into the same error as Mr. Moore, correctly 

 figuring as the male that which we have all along , taken as the male of 

 P. murdava, but describing the present species as its female. We possess 

 two specimens of the female of P. murdava, which differ from the single one 

 of P. stramineipennis in having the darker wings richly purple-glossed, with 

 the very scanty setulose clothing of their bases conforming in colour to that of 

 the male, and in the costal area of the hind wing being concolorous with the 

 rest of the organ, as in the male. Expanse 2'0 to 2-1 inches. 



" In our figure the downy clothing of the upperside of the wings at the 

 base is not represented of a sufficiently light and briglit shade ; it is in reality 

 of a dv.iiY bright whity brown or straw-colour, which being conspicuously con- 

 trasted with the dark margins, renders P. stramineipennis most readily distin- 

 guishable from P. murdava, in which the downy clothing is, as has already 

 been stated, yellowish olivaceous. 



" The genital armature, wliicli has been carefully examined in several 

 specimens of each species, tliough identical in general plan, yet diftcrs greatly 

 in (h;tail in the two. 



" Some hundreds of specimens of each species have passed tlirough our 

 hands." 



J)i.^frihufl(jn. Sikkim, Bhutan, Upper Assam, Cachar, and Western Cliina. 



