ELYMNIAS. By H. Fruiistoreer. 
375 
of the genus. Like panthera and dam it is subject to local influences, it inclines to individual variation, and 
in some districts with strongly contrasted seasons, like Siam and Java, it it has a slight tendency to sea¬ 
sonal forms. Its geographical distribution is discontinuous, since it appears on the Continent and in Java 
in a form with a Danaida genutia-\i\te $, in Tonkin to central Annam, on the Malay Peninsula and in Macro- 
malaya with an Euploea- like $, having the upper surface blue. It is very probable, that the form with the 
blue §, generally known as nigrescens Btlr. will prove to be nothing more than a modified undularis. But 
the phenomenon is so interesting, that the two forms are here kept distinct, the more so as the valve shows 
differential characters, not considerable, but probably worth noting; also because in certain groups of the 
Satyromorphae the clasping organs are subject to but slight variation from species to species. It is true only 
a few specimens have been examined and it is not impossible that intermediate stages occur even in the geni¬ 
talia, as may be confirmed by the colour of the wings, since in Perak $$ occur in which the forewings 
still bear remnants of the orange-red median spots. Larva yellowish green with yellow dorsal and lateral 
stripes and a subdorsal series of elongate, yellow spots, which are red centered and posteriorly blue. Head 
brownish with two pubescent horns. Pupa light green, with yellowish markings and red spotted. ■ — • undu- undularis. 
laris Drury inhabits the whole of India excepting the south, and passes from Assam to Upper Burma, where 
it is replaced by a sister race ( tinctoria Moore). with rather darker blue and more widely separated 
spots on the forewing than in the figured Hypermnestra (87 a). $ very close to violetta (87 a), but the oblique 
white bar on the forewings with delicate violet outline. The $ is an excellent mimic of Danaida plexippus L. 
The is known to diffuse a strong vanilla scent, but the $$ are scentless. This species flies throughout 
the whole year and reaches heights of 1000 m. In the west it extends in the Himalayas as far as Naini Tal, 
the Kumaun district, where Martin found which differ from the Sikkim specimens in the much paler margi¬ 
nal band on the upper surface of the hindwings, so that they already form a transition to the Ceylon race. -— 
tinctoria Moore. The $ differs in the purple glossed marginal region of the hindwings and the extended, more tinctoria. 
diffused pale blue of the forewings. The $ bears prominent white submarginal spots on the hindwings. 
In one $ the entire disc of the upper surface of the hindwing is white, instead of redbrown and powdered with 
brown (paraieuca Fruhst.). Very common in Burma and Tenasserim, observed up to 2000 m, also reported paraleuca. 
from the Mergui Archipelago. - — violetta Fruhst. (87a). All the $<3 taken by me in the dry season in Gen- violetta. 
tral Siam, Muok-Lek, Febr. 1900 at about 1000 feet (one of which still showed wet season colouring on the 
under surface) recall tinctoria in the dark claret distal margin of the hindwings. Together with these I 
took also one $, which deviates from all allied races in having a very narrow violet, instead of white, subapi- 
cal bar on the forewings, the cell of which is almost entirely black. In Bangkok, on the contrary, I took in 
January 1901 four $<$ and 1 $ of an entirely different form, which I denote as fa. epixantha Fruhst. In these epixantha. 
the submarginal spots on the upper surface of the forewing run still further apart than in tinctoria and have 
a more vivid, lighter blue colour. The hindwings become light yellow with a reddish brown gloss, as in jra- 
terna Btlr. qU from Ceylon. A similar form appears to fly in Burma, as Marshall writes that a q from 
Akyab approaches more closely to the fraterna than to any other continental q. The J figured by Staudinger 
also tends somewhat in the direction of fraterna and epixantha. The $ of epixantha (8,5 a) is distinguished 
by a unusually broad oblique white bar on the forewings and the black framing of the hindwings. I took a 
similar but smaller $ in East Siam, near the ruins of Angkor in December 1900. —• meridionalis Fruhst. The mcridio- 
S approaches much more closely to the Sikkim than those of violetta and epixantha, and has only medium nails. 
sized light blue marks on the fore wings and a dark claret coloured outer border to the hindwings, containing 
three blue-grey dots. The $ resembles the epixantha $, from which it is distinguished by the very much 
broader black distal border of all the Avings. In one specimen the oblique bar on the forewing is very broad, 
white, with the outline a vivid intense blue, in another it is narrowed similar to violetta. The latter specimen 
fa. orphnia Frust. is further noticeable from the dark brown disc of the hindwings, which is traversed by white orphnia. 
median nervures, is distally slightly paler and in which the apices of the inwardly produced white submargi¬ 
nal ocelli run out. The red-yellow disc of the forewings is broadly bordered with claret colour as in violetta. 
South Annam, February. I took normal meridionalis at the same place, also at Saigon, January, 1900. I 
would again call attention to the interesting fact, that in South Annam meridionalis supersedes nigrescens 
which advances as far as Central Annam. Thus the distribution of hypermnestra on the continent is discon¬ 
tinuous, since we have undularis in Sikkim, South India, Ceylon, Tenasserim, Siam and South Annam, with 
enclaves of nigrescens on the Malay Peninsula and in Tonkin-Hainan-Formosa. All the hypermnestra forms 
from Further India have in common a very large whitish apical spot on the forewings, with a dark chocolate 
brown, sharply defined basal half on the under surface of all the wings, characters which are espicially distinct 
in specimens showing dry season characters. — fraterna Btlr. q 1 Avith rudiments only of the blue submarginal fraterna. 
spots on the forewings and broad only proximally very slightly reddish distal margin to the hindwings. $ can 
only be distinguished from undularis $ by the somewhat narrowed black border in the anal angle of the fore Avings, 
the broader distal border and more prominent white eye spots on the hindwings. On the under surface 
the light broAvn border of the hindwings appears slightly narrower in continental specimens. The $ thus 
