430 PAPILIOXID.E. 
An exceeding!}' variable species. Some specimens are absolutely devoid of 
markings on the upper surface in both sexes, and from such examples to 
others in which all the wings are heavily bordered with black there are 
all intermediate gradations. The male ranges in colour from a very pale 
citron to orange, and some females are much sutFused Avith blackish 
scales. Some specimens are almost immaculate on the under surface, whilst 
others are heavily marked with dark brown. The males range from l-JO-59 
millim., and the females from 38-59 millim. in expanse. Probably no 
other butterfly has received so many names as T. hecabe ; but confining my 
remarks to such forms as have been named and described from the region 
dealt with here, I may say that an examination of an extensive series such as 
the one before me, selected from an enormous number received by me from 
China and Japan, which includes all the forms enumerated above, together 
with intermediate forms, should prove, even if the fact had not been ascer- 
tained by breeding-experiments, that all the specimens are referable to one 
species. 
Pryer states that the mandarina form is on the wing in the autumn, and 
again, after hibernation, in the spring, when the females deposit theii' eggs 
upon Lespedeza juncea, and it is from these eggs that hecahe, the summer form, 
is produced. The same writer says : — " By placing half of a brood of larvse 
in a cool place and half in a warm one, I have simultaneously produced a 
mixture of the two forms, some perfect hecahe (hot), and some mandarina 
(cold), at a time of year when natiu-ally only hecahe is found. . . . mandarina 
appears on the cold mountains much earlier than on the plains, and these 
fly doAATi and mix with hecabe, producing one or more broods late in the 
autumn, of numberless intermediate varieties, showing all transitions between 
the two parent forms." With reference to the apparent disproportion of the 
sexes of the hecabe form, Pryer writes : — " The males are fond of settling in 
numbers on damp spots in pathways, or flying about in the open, and are 
easily captured in large numbers. The females have to be sought after among 
the herbage and undergrowth, and are much less easily found." 
The larva and pupa of T. hecahe, from Java, are figured by Horsfield (Cat. 
Lep. E. I. C. pi. i. figs. 11, 11 a), who states that the larvee are found 
abundantly from .Tanuary to April feeding on JEschynomene sesban. Distant, 
quoting from Dr. Thwaites and Mr. Mackwood, gives Leguminoste and the 
" INIadras thorn " as food-plants. 
