302 
ERITES. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
The butterflies inhabit the Macromalayan region with one branctrto Tenasserim and Tonkin, but do 
not extend eastwards beyond Bali. Early stages unknown. The Erites seem to prefer the plains to the mountains, 
on Java I did not meet with them above 600 m. and the Tonkin form occurs at about the same elevations. 
The flight is weak and low, with frequent intervals of rest, when the insects settle with folded wings 
on lower leaves or after the manner of certain Mycalesis even on the ground, disappearing among the dry leaves. 
E. medura is the largest and most richly coloured species and at the same time the most widely distri¬ 
buted on the continent, as a branch race has been described from Cachar, also found by me in Tonkin, me¬ 
dura further inhabits Burma and Java, and hence will surely yet be discovered in Perak or elsewhere on the 
Malay Peninsula, and affords fresh evidence of the former land-connection between Further India and Java, 
and even with the addition of Sumatra and Borneo, which must already have been separated when medura 
medura. emigrated from Java to Cachar or more probably vice versa. — - medura Horsf., the first discovered species of 
the genus, is one of the commonest butterflies along the south coast of Java, where it begins to appear in abun¬ 
dance at the end of the rainy season, February—March, preferring the open woods, and can easily be taken 
on sunny days at the edges of the paths. In East Java medura is commoner than in the west of the island 
and Doherty told me that he had met with it on the southern slopes of the volcano of Semeru, East Java, 
in astonishing numbers. But medura does not ascend above 600 m. into the mountains. The species may be 
recognized, at a glance by the presence of the row of ocelli on the hindwing above; this consists of five ocelli, 
arranged as follows: first a minute, scarcely perceptible costal eye-spot and then four contiguous ocelli of equal 
size, with thick black pupils and broad yellow bordering, which in this form and colouring occur only in medura 
and its subspecies. The equal size and the contiguity of the ocelli is the characteristic for medura. In addition 
the anal ocellus of the forewing in both sexes is large and prominent and shows through so strongly on the upper- 
side that it really belongs also to this surface; it shows, however, at most in the $ and in East Javan speci¬ 
mens the trace of a white pupil; above it on the under surface there are always only three small ocelli, also 
distinctly visible above, and very constant, showing no variation even when a large series is examined; all the 
other species possess four small ocelli. The large ocellus of the forewing has on the under surface a bright sil¬ 
very pupil, placed, exactly in the centre. The d.iscal, proximal band is straight, but is constricted at the point 
where it is intersected by the median vein; the median, distal band, which in and $ shows through distinctly 
yellow on the upperside also, has near the anal margin, exactly midway between lower median vein and sub¬ 
median, a small bend distad, which is entirely absent in angularis. The marginal lines are very well developed. 
The ^ differs from the > n the lighter ground-colour, larger expanse, broader wings and. larger ocelli. East 
Javan specimens — I possess some from Malang — are considerably lighter and the median, distal band of 
the hindwing beneath has in the middle, about over the third median vein, only a very indistinct black border 
and even shows a tendency to become confluent with the yellow foreground of the adjacent ocelli three and 
four, medura has been taken by Doherty (Niceville, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. 66, 1897, p. 679) also on Bah. 
the most easterly record for the genus; my collector, who Avorked the island for two months, failed to find it; 
falcipennis. it probably shows the peculiarities of the East Javan form intensified (Martin). — falcipennis W.-Mas. & 
Nicev. (93 e) is really only an enlarged medura with still larger ocellus on the foreAAung, above which, just as in 
medura, are placed three smaller eye-spots together. The $ bears still more completely circular and more broad¬ 
ly yelloAv-margined eye-spots on both wings and the yellow angular band on the upperside of the hindAving 
is as distinct as in medura $. falcipennis Avas described from Cachar from an example of the dry season (93 e 1), 
roduniata. Avhilst roduntata Nicev. is the rainy-season form, of which we (93 e 2) figure a which is in my collection from 
Tenasserim. Of the form falcipennis I myself took examples identical with Moore’s figure (Lepidoptera Indica 
II, pi. 121, fig. 3 and 3 a) in Central Tonkin at Chiem-Hoa, August—September. Both medura races have 
in common four contiguous eye-spots of equal size, strongly margined with yelloAv, on the upper surface of file 
hindAving, by which they are easy to separate from the offshoots of a species likeAvise occurring on the continent, 
but smaller, namely 
E. argentina, which sIioavs on the upperside of the hindwing 5 Avidely separated eye-spots, decreasing 
in size from the anal angle to the costal area. In all the forms there are further 4 small eye-spots on the under¬ 
side of the forewing, which are of nearly equal size, Avhere in angularis and medura Ave only find 3 subapical 
argentina. ocelli. — argentina Btlr. (93 e as ines) is the race from northern Borneo, the type having come from the island 
of Labuan, the coaling-station of the sultanate of Brunei. It is strikingly light and much more resembles the 
■hies. Javan fruhstorferi (93 e) than ines Fruhst. (93 e as argentina), from the south and south-east of Borneo, ines 
again much more approximates to the Perak subspecies and the form from Sumatra than to its oavh sister- 
delia. race from North Borneo. — della Mart., from Perak and Sumatra, also knoAvn from Banka, is beneath darker 
grey and bears someAvhat narrower brown longitudinal bands than ines ; it differs from specimens from Labuan 
