MYCALESIS. By H. Fruhstoreer. 
343 
local races all bear the same almost unmarked, indefinite, blurred grey or brown colouring on the under sur¬ 
face of the wings. Manders observed the same fact on. Ceylon and writes of it in the Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 
1899, p. 182 as follows: ,,I have been able to examine a large series of specimens from Ceylon, and 1 
find as a result that though it is easy to separate typical examples of each it is impossible to draw any hard 
and fast line between the seasonal forms; and farther I am in some instances unable satisfactorily to dis¬ 
criminate the species; there are certain specimens which are intermediate between M. perseus and M. 
polydectaF Bingham also arrived recently at a similar result, as he says (Fauna of Brit. India, p. 56): ,,Five oc 
six species belonging to Moore’s genus are very closely allied. M. perseus, I think, can always be recognized 
in both sexes by the disposition of the ocelli on the underside of the hind wing, which is constant; but of the 
others only the males can be separated with any certainty by the shape, size, and colour of the secondary sex- 
marks on the underside of the fore wing. In the long series of females that I have examined, I have been 
unable to find a single constant character by which to distinguish one form from the other. Mr. de Niceville 
considered it probable that they interbred; in which case it is quite possible that there is only one form, of which 
the males possess varying secondary sexual characters, that are. however, constant in certain series.“ Niceville’s 
hybridisation theory, however, is not necessary in order to explain the fact that the of different species 
are similar. In the Lepidoptera, where small causes produce great results, variability is the rule, constancy, 
on the other hand, the exception. Even the £9 of Mycalesis which are specifically widely separated, such as 
malsara , mystes and sanatana, which I took in Siam, Annam and Tonkin in the dry season, are confusingly 
similar. Now as the female forms of the rainy season in almost all Mycalesis, as has been already remarked above, 
can be at once determined and recognized, it follows that it is the rainy season which separates the species, 
while the dry season levels them. But much as has been already written concerning the imagines of perseus 
and often as both sexes have been figured, there is at present no figure of the early stages, and of the larva it 
has only been recorded that it feeds on grasses. — In the Macromalayan region perseus is somewhat 
modified, the size becoming smaller, the under surface darkened, the white longitudinal band of the rainy- 
season form and the ocelli reduced. This is cepheus Btlr., the type of which came from Penang, but which also 
occurs on Sumatra, Billiton, where according to Martin there is no dry-season form. The latter does not apply 
to Java, where the western race showed all the characters of cepheus, while in the east a pronounced dry- 
season form occurs, which deserves separation as prasias form, nov., on account of the yellowish longitudinal 
band on the under surface, the ocelli reduced to dots and before all on account of the violet shade of the 
distal area of the hindwing. Also the perseus from Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa in my collection are best united 
with cepheus. — persa 8m., described from wet-season examples, differs somewhat from prasias in the increase 
of the violet on the underside of both wings; moreover the seasonal forms are even more distinctly differentiated 
than on Java, in accordance with the sharper contrast between the seasons. Known from the Micromalayan 
islands of the Timor Group, extending eastwards to Key and Kisser. Lombok examples belong sometimes to 
persa, sometimes to cepheus. — lalassis Hew., first published from Gilolo, indicates a further melanotic progres¬ 
sion, which is accompanied by a distinct reduction in size. Here belong also examples from Celebes, the South 
Moluccas and New Guinea. — zia Btlr. is a very small, weakly marked form from tropical Australia. — lu- 
gens Btlr. is the most easterly branch of the collective species, unknown to me and described from Vate. — 
acarya Fruhst. (93 b) was found by Doherty on Palawan. The only example before me, taken in January, 
appears to belong to an intermediate form. The ocelli on the upperside of the forewing broadly margined with 
pale brown, as in dry-season specimens from Anterior India. The under surface with delicate markings, recal¬ 
ling persa, small ocelli, which show pale grey, oblong bordering. — caesonica Wall, is the race from the northern 
Philippines, which closely approaches cepheus and was described from examples of the dry period, whilst igo- 
leta Fldr. denotes an intermediate form. In addition to Luzon Semper also mentions the Babuanes as locality. 
M. mineus, another protean species, but becoming somewhat rarer than perseus in the Malayan archi¬ 
pelago. From Java, for instance, I have not a single example. Yet the early stages are more accurately known. 
mineus is often confused with perseus, but the scent-area of the hindwing is larger and more glossy than in per¬ 
seus F ., with a longer, narrow androconial cavity, which is filled up with red-brown or grey scales. Moreover 
the ocelli of the hindwing are arranged in a straighter row. — mineus L. (= clrusia Cr.) (91 f) was erected by 
Linne on the rainy-season form, whilst the commoner dry-season form has received the name otrea Cr. (= ma- 
merta Cr.). A common species, occurring everywhere all the year round together with Orsotriaena medus and 
inhabiting every hedge and the borders of every wood. The greenish white, spherical eggs, which are laid singly, 
show before the larvae hatch first a ring, then a spot of black, the head of the larva, which is intensively black, 
showing through. The young larvae are at first transparent and only become green after feeding. Newly hatched 
larvae of mineus and medus mixed together could always be at once correctly separated by noticing the black 
head of those of mineus. After the second moult the larva is white-green with a dorsal dark green longitudinal 
stripe, which becomes black-brown on the posterior segments; right and left of the dorsal line on the 2nd, 
cepheus. 
prasias. 
persa. 
lalassis. 
zia. 
lutgens. 
acarya. 
caesonica. 
igoleta. 
mineus. 
oirea. 
