Publ. 16. XII. 1926. 
RAPALA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
1001 
B. isocrates F. (= pann F.) (161 b). J above dark violettish-blue, in a certain light with a magnificent isocrates. 
gloss; in the forewing behind the cell a dull ochreous punctiform spot which, however, only becomes distinct 
in a certain light. When being seen from above, the upper surface often appears quite monotonously dark 
greyish-brown. In the $ this ochreous spot is better developed, but posteriorly mostly indistinctly defined. 
Under surface in both sexes greyish wine coloured. Cell-end streak and postcliscal chain of spots edged with 
white, and before the margin an indistinct whitish line. — The eggs are deposited in the calyx of pomegranate 
trees etc.; adult larva blackish-brown with flesh-colour behind the head and in and behind the centre of the 
dorsum. It lives in the fruits of various trees; beside the pomegranate tree (Punica granatum) also on Psidium 
guava, Eriobotrya japonica, Randia dumetorum, uliginosa etc.’; it has the habits described in other Deudorix 
and Virachola (cf. p. 998). Distributed from the Himalaya over the whole of India, as far as Ceylon, Assam 
and Burma, and in some places common. This species occurs in places in such great numbers that in some 
gardens not a single pomegranate gets ripe, because all the fruits are damaged by the larvae of isocrates. 
B. eryx L. ( = amyntor Hbst.) (146f, as anna). This large lepidopteron is the only Deudorix with eryx. 
a grass-green under surface and therefore unmistakable. The species is so conspicuous that the genus Lehera 
Mr. was based upon it, which, however, does not differ structurally. Upper surface lustrous dark blue with 
a broad black apex and distal margin of the forewing. From the Himalaya to the south as far as Assam and 
to the east over Hongkong and South China to Formosa. The $ exhibits above the dark brown ground¬ 
colour with a white anal area. — An aberration has a yellow under surface; this is ab. skinneri Wood.-Mas. skinner!. 
The only specimen known has been taken on the 21st of June 1881 near Irangmara (in Cachar), and already 
the living insect is reported to have been yellow beneath; nevertheless de Niceville presumes that chemical 
influences have effected a change here. — anna Drc. (147 d) is the (smaller) form from Borneo, which we figure anna. 
beside the typical one; by the artist’s mistake the figures of these two forms of eryx have been exchanged 
on the plate. According to Marshall and de Niceville, this species is rare wherever it occurs. I can confirm 
this statement for Hongkong, for although I was carefully collecting for a whole summer, I never found any 
specimen on more than 50 excursions. 
D. dohertyi Oberth. (147 e) is a large, beautiful species; above similar to eryx, beneath more sap- dohertyi. 
green, and distinguishable by the transverse stripe before the marginal area extending here in a uniform bow, 
whereas in the preceding ones it is composed of torn, somewhat dentate, small white hooks and streaks. From 
Dutch New Guinea. 
D. grandis B. <£■ J. This species is also still green beneath, though of a paler tint; the body and legs grandis. 
are red-haired. Above like eryx, but the blue colour reduced by the increasement of the marginal black in the 
forewing, whilst in the hindwing only yet a small discal spot is blue. Aroa (New Guinea). 
83. Gemis: JCapnlu Mr. 
Of this genus, the members of which show entirely the habits of our Thecla, a great number of forms 
have been described as distinct species which have been distributed in numerous genera that can hardly be regar¬ 
ded as subgenera, such as Vadebra, Bidaspa, Zinaopa etc.; also B. seleria which we had separated yet in Vol. I 
(p. 259) as Hysudra, is so closely allied to Bapala nissa, that it can be well ranged in the same genus. Struc¬ 
turally, the Bapala are nothing else but small and more delicate Deudorix, and the great resemblance between 
the Deudorix of the diara- group and the Bapala melampus is presumably rather a natural relationship than 
a convergency, mimicry being cpiite out of the question. We may mention as a biological difference between 
Deudorix and Bapala, that the former are developed in the interior of fruits, whereas the Bapala live on leaves 
like other larvae. 
R. melampus Cr. (Vol. I, pi. 72 b) and jarbas F. are both -so extraordinarily similar that it appears melampus. 
almost impossible to separate them. They have also always been mixed up. Fabrioilts’ description applies jarbas. 
to both. According to Butler, jarbas (= jarbus) more distinctly shows black veins in the red colour above, 
in opposition to Donovan’s figure of the insect (Ins. Ind. pi. 40, fig. 3). According to some authors the two 
forms are to be separated into a northern and a southern form, according to others into an eastern and western 
race, sorya Roll., fromCashmir could in the former case only belong to the northern form, jarbas: but according 
to Marshall and de Niceville it coincides ivith melampus. Also here more forms have been denominated 
again than can be maintained; presumably season forms have been considered as geographical races. At any 
rate the question has not yet been settled. India from the Himalaya to Annam and Burma. - menaichus Fruhst., menaichus. 
from Nias, is an insular form in which the transverse bands beneath and their borders are broader than in 
specimens from the continent and Ceylon; the $ has above a light copper-red colour'of the wings. — dekaiarchus dekaiar- 
Fruhst. (= jarbas Piep. & Snell.) has above much lighter $$ than melampus-, the difference of the SS is not 
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