362 
MELANITIS. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
These butterflies avoid the sun and are never found in the heat of the day; dawn and twilight are 
their favorite hours and they drag out their evenings so long that they are indeed occasional visitors to the 
lamp light, keeping the moths company. They fly very short distances, settling down with folded wings to 
rest on the bare earth or on dark damp tree roots. The coloring of un. s. affords them an excellent protec¬ 
tion even against sharpsighted enemies. They are moreover very shy and fly off before one can get near 
them. One species is spread over three continents, others are found only in the orient, others again are 
peculiar to Molucca and New Guinea. They are butterflies of the low lands, and are found in the neigh¬ 
borhood of human dwellings and prefer copses and orchards. Of. Vol. I, p. 88. 
M. leda (Vol. I, p. 88, Fig. 32 a) a species which occurs everywhere in South and East Asia where 
ismene. rice is cultivated and on all islands up to the most remote ocean islets. — ismetie Cr. named from a 
dry season form, appears to be the oldest name for the continental race of this species which in certain 
determinate i. regions, e. g. the Western Himalayas occurs much more frequently as detenninata Btlr. the oldest name for 
the rainy season form, better known by the designation leda. Now, Butler has asserted that the Lynnean 
type of leda comes from Amboina where an island form quite different from the leda of continental India occurs. 
■mycena. A most interesting aberration is mycena Cr., originally described from the coast of Coromandel, it is very 
rare but widely spread, for I have specimens before me from Formosa, Sikkim and Borneo. Resembling the 
dry season form it is characterized by a broad red-brown approach to the apical eyespot f. w. up. s. and 
un. s. by the unrelieved red or yellow-brown coloring which towards the distal margin changes suddenly and 
makes room for a narrow yellowish or brownish yellow marginal band which looks as if had been drawn 
with a ruler. Such specimens, if un. s. alone be examined, run the risk of being confounded with specimens 
of bela and zitenius which also possess a sharply delineated distal margin. As Seitz lias already clearly demon¬ 
strated, no two specimens are exactly alike, and, just as dry seasons produce most uncommon forms ( nycena ), 
we likewise find abnormal forms in the eyespotted generation. Thus I have before me a $ from Tonkin 
which bears as large and as broadly yellow ringed eyes on the f. w. un. s. as on the h. w. and a $ from Sik¬ 
kim shows four longish white streaks instead of ocelli. Generally speaking it can be said that both sexes 
of ismene have a broad projecting apex and determinata shows a more cleanly demarcated apical margin of f. 
w.; a peculiarity which is again very noticeable in the genus Kallima. Hagen has remarked that leda does not 
visit blossoms in Sumatra but is met with in large nimbers on fallen, rotten fruit, especially figs, most 
frequently in the early morning or late evening. These butterflies enjoy their meals when all others are 
asleep, at 6 A. M. or at dusk. Fallen fruit of the oreng (sugar) palm and fallen blossom of the pising (banana, 
plantain) are also favorite dishes of the Melanitis. Quarrelsome males often rise high in the air and then 
sweep back in regular spiral curves to their resting place, throwing off sharp silhouettes against the gold 
shnessa. of the tropical sunset (Martin). — simessa Fruhst. (= arcensia Fruhst. olim) I venture thus to distinguish 
the Javanese from the continental specimens. Of this subspecies there is a particularly large spotted rainy 
season form, already known and figured by Hubner, un. s. a prevailing brown yellow with very sharp dark 
brown bands. The dry season form too is characterized by uncommonly broad black-brown bands partially 
invaded by black or brown on the inner side and forming a lively contrast with the yellow or red-brown 
ismenides. of un. s. (ismenides form. nov.). Hr. Piepers remarks that shnessa sometimes settles by day on the dining¬ 
room ceiling and that then the wall lizards (Hemidactylus) which is so well provided with olefactory organs 
come forth from their lurking places, evidently attracted by their smell, first lick the butterflies so as to 
be quite sure of their prey and only seize them when they move, shnessa is common everywhere in Java 
where rice is cultivated, likewise in Bawean. Specimens from Lombok are a passage to the Wetter form, 
ebs&lescens. I have from this place both mycena and ismenides. — obsolescens Fldr. up. s. somewhat darker and un. s. 
desperata. more uniform gray than shnessa, common in North and South Celebes. — desperata Fruhst. approaches closely 
to the Molukka race through its dark brown flush up. s. and its uniform, very broad, rust-red proximal 
leda. region of eye-spots f. w., a fact that Doherty has remarked. Island of Wetter, Alor. — - leda L. (95 d) descri¬ 
bed byLiNNE with the locality “Asia”. Through Butler who discovered the type, it was ascertained that 
it originated however in Amboina, whence Linne is known to have received numeious insects. Up. s. always 
red-brown, not black gray as in the continental macro- and micromalayan specimens. Un. s. with a distinct 
purple sheen and always more or less cocoa coloured; it does not vary as much as ismene or shnessa. Even 
buruana. the different generations are not easy to determine. Amboina, Ceram, Uliasser. — buruana Holl. is the name 
given to a form peculiar to the island of Burn. Had the author been aware of Butler’s find, he would 
certainly never have described it, still this butterfly has a brighter and more intense red-brown up. s. than 
moluccarum. my pair from Amboina. - — moluccarum Fruhst. (96 a) [= fulvescens Fldr. (1867) a name preoccupied by Guenee 
