Pull. 24. IV. 1914. 
PRAETAXILA. By H. Fruhstoreer. 
793 
generally they are paler. — drupadi Horsf. denotes the form being in the at the apex the lightest and most drupadi. 
extensively red-brown. In January and February 1891 , this species was occasionally met with in the forests 
near Palabuan on the southern coasts of Java. Later on I found it also in the so-called ,,Djampangs“ at 
an altitude of about 1000 ft. to the south of the Plateau of the Pengalengan. Particularly the $ is lighter 
than Sumatrans with a more purely white band. The d has the under siirface of the wings more abundantly 
covered with violet, which is especially conspicuous in the anal angle where the marking begins to turn 
obsolete in the Sumatrans. Specimens from the east of Ja /a are not known to me. It would be interesting 
to find out how far drupadi penetrates into Central Java. — zemara Bllr. (138 f <$, 138 g $ as agias 2), zemara. 
the race with the greatest differentiation, has the $ above with a yellowish, reddish-bordered oblique band 
of the forewing. $ larger than its allies, with a very much broader, cinnamon-brown subapical area of the 
forewing. From North and South East Borneo in my collection. — agias Fruhst. (140 d 2) inhabits certain agias. 
parts of South East Borneo and was recently found in great numbers near Sintang on the Kapuas, from 
December till May. as a rule, smaller than zemara <$<$, the red-brown subapical area scarcely more ex¬ 
tensive than in ducas from Sumatra, spotting of the under surface more hazy, and therefore not so variegated 
and prominent as in zemara. The $ has an oblique band of the forewing peculiarly clouded in a whitish 
smoky grey, varying individually in width, but never so very prominent as in 2$ from North Borneo or 
the extremes! 99 of ducas from Sumatra. Ground-colour greyish-black, onl} locally covered with red-brown. 
Under surface extremely contrasting with zemara-Q, smoky-grey with a dull ochre-vellow tinge. The metallic 
maculae are greyish-violet, the longitudinal bands yellowish, the apical area uncommonly extensive, but 
not so sharply bordered as in the $ of ducas and fasciala. Shelford knew $$ of agias from Sarawak and 
took them to be $$ of a particular species occurring beside zemara. because both the white- and yellow-banded 
92 fly together there, agias thus occurs in Sarawak and certain parts of South East Borneo as an aberration 
beside zemara, whilst near Sintang it occurs as an areal form unmixed with yellowish-banded 92. •—- othrys oihrys. 
form. nov. is to denote another deviation of North Borneo approximating much rather the ducas- 9 from 
Sumatra and, at the same time, forming the transition to the Palawan-race. $ scarcely differing from the 
agias-A, 9 of a brighter red-brown with a purely white oblique band of the forewing. Type in the Tring- 
Museum, flying in March, which Everett, the collector of the new form, denoted as dry period. — gythion gyfhlon. 
subsp. nov. occurs in the Natuna Islands. 9 the nearest to othrys-Q with a stunted, but purely white sub¬ 
apical band of the forewing. Upper surface intensely but light red-brown with smaller black maculae. Under 
surface recognizable by reduced black, greyish-violet and yellowish spots. Type from Bunguran, flying-time 
July till October, in the Tring Museum. — palawanicus Stgr. resembles above in the 9 the most berthae palavmni- 
from Siam and is conspicuous for its blurred black maculae. Under surface without the postdiscal intra- r " 
median black spots of the hindwings. The yellowish proximal markings looking like arrow-heads are flattened. 
Island of Palawan, rare. In a very similar form likewise without a subanal black spotting of the under surface 
of the hindwings also from the little island of Balabac in my collection. 
7. Genus: Praetaxila gen. nov. 
Occurring in the place of the genus Taxila in the Papuan district, just like the genus Dicallaneura 
replaces Abisara there. Of Abisara with which Praetaxila was united hitherto, the new group of species 
has only the hairy eyes and, in the 9$> the black apical spots of the hindwings. Structurally, however, 
it is entirely allied to the genus Taxila. But it differs also from the* latter by the absence of the first sub¬ 
costal vein which is immediately after its rising grown together with the costal, by the longer posterior dis- 
cocellular of the forewing which opens farther outside. On the hindwings the costal, like in Taxila. runs pa¬ 
rallel with the radial stem, the precostal is still shorter. Subcostal and radial bifurcate so far distallv from 
the cell that the subcostal is only quite a short small vein. Hindwings, like in Taxila, with accumulations 
of androconia at the costal and the radial-base, being repeated, like in Taxila, also on the submedian 
of the forewings. Posterior discocellular considerably longer than in Abisara and Taxila. The sexual hetero- 
morphism reaches the climax in Pseudotaxila among all the Nemeobiini. The colorial contrasts are unparallelled 
in the whole oriental world of the Rhopalocera, and beside the colouring, also the shape of the wings varies. 
Parpi in all the species covered with reddish-yellow hairs instead of grey, as in Abisara. They preponderantly 
inhabit the mountain-ranges of New Guinea, but single species descend as far as to the sea-coast. They are 
all forest animals and without exception still very rare in our collections. Type: P. segecia.. 
P. segecia, the first described species of the genus. A above black with a purely white, anteriorly 
tapering, postdiscal oblique band varying in extent according to the habitat of the butterfly. Before the 
apex of the forewing one or two to three more white dots. On the hindwings white cilia changing off with 
black ones, otherwise without markings. Our figure (138 g) presents the habitus of the 9 . Under surface grey 
with a black apical part of both wings, on the forewings the marks of the upper surface being repeated, 
whereas on the hindwings there appear black submarginal, white-bordered and red-brown discal spots. Oc¬ 
currence from the Aru Islands, Southern Dutch as well as British New Guinea and North Australia. The 
IX 
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