ABISARA. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
781 
or partly in the forms of the rainless period and in some insular races. On the under surface of the hindwings 
there generally appear three costal maculae. Sometimes the foremost is absent in the dcL but in the $$ it 
appears again (race of the Andamans). $ always larger and paler red-brown than the $. The longitudinal bands 
are always more prominently indicated, there often also appear distinctly defined or dull blurred white sub- 
apical bands. The black spots on the upper surface of the hindwings are also in the winter-generation more 
pertinaceous than in the <$, and the apical spots never disappear entirely. — Larva on Myrsineae, light green, 
covered with fine hairs. Pupa with two obtuse horns on the head, black dots, likewise hairy. Egg globular, 
smooth, greenish; it is deposited on the under surface of the food-plant. The young larva only eats small patches 
out from it without touching the upper epidermis. — scliedeli Fruhst. occurs in Okinawa of the Liu Kiu Islands schedcli. 
and is of a larger habitus than echerius from South China and Hongkong. Type belonging to the dry period- 
form, with a broad, red-brown stripe of the wing-centre on a pale reddish-brown ground. — echerius Stoll (138 c echerius. 
and Vol. I, p. 254, t. 89 c) is, according to Kershaw’s precious work on the ,,Butterflies of Hongkong 
and South-East China”, everywhere common where there is some coppice in wooded districts. The imago 
flies from one leaf to another, making small jumps from time to time, and walking by jerks about on the middle 
of the leaf with its wings half opened, echerius rarely undertakes larger flights in day-time, but in the dusk 
it is fond of roving about like the Hesperids. echerius occurs all the year round and can stand the cold very 
well being on the way even in those days when other butterflies timidly conceal themselves from the frost. 
echerius is rarely seen on flowers, but occasionally it chinks from wet places. Clasping-organs with a delicate, 
skinny uncus. Valve with a ventral, chitinous point and a narrow, skinny, dorsal appendage. Penis-tube most 
complicatedly armed with points and lateral hooks. •— As lydda Hew. (Vol. I, p. 254, t. 89 d) the paler winter- lydda. 
form with less markings has been described. — saturata Moore is a darker race of the Island of Hainan with suiurata. 
more brightly greyish-violet longitudinal stripes of the under surface of both wings. The $ is lying before me 
by the kindness of the owner of the Tring Museum. It appertains to the form of the wet period, flying from 
May to July. It is larger, more intensely red-brown, with a more extensive and more angled median band of 
the under surface of the hindwings. — bazilensis Fruhst. (138c <§, 140 b $) has the same size as echerius and bazilensis. 
differs chiefly by the preponderantly yellowish, instead of greyish-violet longitudinal stripes of the under 
surface. The $ differs from the d 1 by more extensive and lighter bands. Island of Bazilan, flying in February 
and March. — laura Fruhst. (138 d) I have formerly treated as a branch-race of A. celebica Fob. But since I laura. 
have seen in Staudlnger’s collection a race from the same island being more nearly allied to celebica , I am 
obliged to regard laura as an off-shoot of A. echerius, owing to the steep, almost purely white parallel striation 
of the forewings, being towards the costal only somewhat bent proximally. The d i s beneath the most similar 
to A. echerius bazilensis (138 c), though it is slightly larger. Mindoro, discovered by Dr. Plates, d? type 
my collection. - — tonkinianus Fruhst. was based upon a $ of the extremest dry period-form of the month tonkinia- 
of April, found at an elevation of about 1000 m in the Manson Mountains at the frontier between Ton¬ 
kin and the South Chinese Province of Kwangsi. $ Rbove lighter red-brown than echerius- $ from Hong¬ 
kong. Hindwing with a more projecting median lobe. — meta Fruhst. (140 c) is the rainy period-form meta. 
of it, flying from August till September, d above more uniformly darker red-brown with a brighter violet 
lustre, $ with more or less distinct, whitish-powdered bands being somewhat angled beyond the cell. On 
the under surface, these longitudinal stripes are of a purer white and entirely stronger. From Chiem- 
Hoa,, Central Tonkin. — annamitica Fruhst. d more intensely red-brown than meta. Under surface annamitica. 
much more like kausambioides Nicev. by the darkening of all the white bands and the bordering of the spots. 
$ above darker than meta-Q, with broader yellowish-white bands which are less sharply defined. The black 
spotting of the hindwings is reduced, and the subanal cuneiform spots are stunted into small narrow^ lunae. 
Under surface: The helmet-spots standing in meta between the medians are more indistinct. Flying in Novem¬ 
ber, December ; I observed them in Central Annam. Type belonging to the rainy period-form. In the Paris 
Museum there are specimens from Chau-Doc in Cochin-China, representing the intermediate form and remin¬ 
ding us of abnormis from Burma by a purely w r hite subapical oblique band on both sides of the fore-wings; further¬ 
more, $ and $ from the same habitat as well as from Saigon, belonging to the extreme dry period and forming 
the transition to angulata from Burma. The Tring-Museum, furthermore, has both sexes from the Sekong 
River in the Laos States found by the collector of orchids, Micholitz. in February and March 1904. - — siamensis siamensis. 
Fruhst. (138 c, 140 d $) w r as found by me in January and February at an altitude of about 300 nr, in an inter¬ 
mediate form closely approximating the generation of the rainy period. however, already without black 
spots on the upper surface of the hindwings. $ light reddish-brown with a distinct, intensely brown median 
band on both wings and only quite faintly indicated light bands. Under- surface the most closely allied to anna¬ 
mitica Fruhst., but with more delicate, more blurred, whitish greyish-violet bands. — angulata Moore is the angulata. 
oldest name for the most variable of the Abisara. A large series of specimens of both sexes is lying before me, 
and according to the method of the European varietists, each of them would be justified to be denominated. 
angulata was based upon $$ of the extreme dry period-form, being closely allied to tonkiniana. Specimens 
dated January from South Tenasserim approximate echerius f. lydda, because they changed the usual plum- 
colour for a dull browm and also hardly excel the Hongkong race in size. When the rainless period has made 
more progress, in all the specimens a white band gradually develops itself beneath, mostly traversing only 
