﻿NJMPRALIN^, (Group CHA-RAXINA.) 229 



It comes out about ten o'clock, and, selecting a tree with bright shiny leaves, 

 perches bolt upright in the middle of a particular leaf, just a foot above the highest 

 point you can reach with your net. Whether by accident or design, the position is 

 fenced on all sides with a creeper, whose sharp-curved thorns lay hold of everything 

 that passes them, and let go nothing. There the proud creature sits, chasing 

 away any other butterfly that approaches, and returning to the same leaf. If you 

 pelt it with stones, it darts off, takes a short circuit, and returns to the same leaf. 

 You may pelt it for an hour with the same result " (J. Bombay N.H.S. 188G, p. 

 132). " All the Charaxes in the Malayan region are hard to catch, but there 

 is nothing more helpless than most Charaxes in the Indo-Malayan region. 

 They fly so straight that you can take them on the wing nine times out of 

 ten ; they persistently return to the same spot, and love to alight on projecting 

 twigs, where you can easily get them by a stroke of the net from below. But 

 this is not the case in the Malayan regions ; I do not know how many hours I 

 spent in the interior of Sumba trying to catch a huge undescribed Charaxes of the 

 fyrrhus group ; and the polyzena group never seem common down there as in India " 

 (Doherty, P.Z.S. 1891, p. 256). 



DiMOEPHisM. — In the group Charaxina, it will probably ultimately be found, 

 that certain species of the genus Earidra, and of Eulepis, as here described, are but 

 dimorphic or seasonal forms. In Haridra, it probably occurs both in the section of 

 which the males have no white band on the forewing, and also in the section in 

 which the white band is present in both male and female. But, as there is little 

 available data respecting the times of appearance on the wing of the various species, 

 and further, where such is known, the names of the species, as cited by certain authors, 

 are erroneously determined (as we have personally pi'oved by actual comparison of 

 specimens) ; consequently we cannot utilize them with certainty. 



Key to the Genera of the Charaxina. 



A. First and second subcostal branches oiforetuing emitted before end of the cell. 



a. Cell of Idndieing imperfectly closed Haeidea. Chaeaxes. 



b. Cell of hindwing entirely open ....... Eulepis. Murwareda. 



B. First subcostal branch only of the forewing emitted before end of the cell ; 



cell of hindwing open . ........ Helcy a. 



Genus HARIDRA. 



Earidra, Moore, Lepidoptera of Ceylon, i. p. 30 (1880). 

 Charaxes (part), Felder ; Butler ; Distant ; de Niceville. 



Imago. — Male. Wings similar in form to Charaxes. Foretoing somewhat 

 broader, with the costa more arched. Eindiving somewhat more convex externally. 



