260 NYMPHALID.E. 
this fact Avould seem to separate it from V. urficce. Probably, however, 
ladakensis may be only an isolated mountain form, and the exposed positions 
in which it occurs may have caused the larva to seek protection by con- 
structing the leafy retreat referred to above. Although both kaschmirensis 
and rizana occasionally occur at the same altitudes as ladakensis, the 
breeding-ground of the two first-named is at a very much lower elevation, and 
their presence in the perfect state on the higher ranges is due to the insect's 
Avell-knoAvn love of roaming. 
Grum-Grshimailo describes V. urticce, var. nixa*, fi-om the Pamii', and 
states that he received a Thibetan example of the same form fi-om M. Oberthiir. 
V. nrticce occurs throughout the whole of Europe and Northern and Eastern 
Asia. 
Staudinger (Rom. sur Lep. vi. p. 179) states that it is common in Amur- 
land, and that the specimens approach the form polaris, Stand. 
Vanessa xanthomelas. 
P apilio xanthomelas,'Ei^Er, ^ch.meii.\. pt. 2, pi. Ixiii. fig. 4 (1780?); Hiibner, Eur. 
Schmett. i. figs. 85, 86 (1793 ?). 
Vanessa xanthomelas, Godart, Enc. Meth. ix. p. 830 (1813) ; Horsfield & Moore, Cat. 
Lep. Mus. E.I. C. i. p. 137 (1857); Laug, Butt. Eur. p. 172, pi. xl. fig. 1 (1884) ; 
de Niceville, Butt. Ind. ii. p. 235, pi. xviii. fig. 73, 6 (1886) ; Pryer, Rhop. Nihon. 
p. 26, pi. vi. fig. 10(1888). 
" Male and Female. Upperside : both wings rich fulvous, the outer margin broadly black, bearing 
two indistinct diffused ochreous marginal lines, which are broken by bluish spots at the ends 
of the uervules. Fore win^s with two black spots in the middle of the cell, ofteu more or 
less joined, sometimes forming a single quadrate spot, a large quadrate black patch at the 
end of the cell bounded above by the costa and below by tho third median nervule, beyond 
which is a pale yellow diffused patch on the costa, another black patch beyond decreasing in 
width from the costa to the lower discoidal norvule : with a pale yellowish more or less 
macular streak beyond from the costa to the upper discoidal interspace ; two more or less 
rounded black spots on the disc, the lower the larger, divided by the second median nervule ; 
two other larger simUar spots in the submedian interspace, tho outer one the smaller, less 
distinct and diffused ; the costa more or loss striated with ochreous and black. Hind wing 
with a large somewhat rounded black spot from the middle of the costa to the discoidal 
* Var nixa, Gr.-Gr. (Rom. sur Lep. iv. p. 426). " Elle se distingue du typo : 1) par I'absence 
presque complete de taches bleues dans la bande margiuale des aUes antorieures ; 2) par une 
semi-ombre noiratre assez large limitant du cote interieur la bande marginale des aUes 
posterieures, et 3) par la coloration unie noir-roux du dessous des ailes anterieures. 
" Cette forme vole au Darvaz dans le defile de Khobou-rabat, sur les pentes mcridionales des monts 
Darvaz, a une altitude de 9000 p. Juin." 
