CYRESTIS. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
571 
tennae delicate, gradually thickening to form an elongate club. F. w. with two subcostal branches before 
the end of the cell; the third nervule closer to the fourth, the latter running toward the apex, the fifth to the 
outer margin. The upper discocellular is very short, the middle one straight or gently curved, measuring % 
of the length of the delicate, straight lower discocellular which joins the median vein at the origin of the second 
nervule, though in a few species it is almost obsolete. H. w. with single, curved precostal vein branching 
off shortly beyond or at the origin of the subcostal. The cell is either apparently open (Apsithra) or closed by 
a fine lower discocellular. In d'd' the prothoracic legs are very delicate and thin, covered with silky hair; tarsus short. 
In the fore feet correspond to those of Megalura (Dr. Schatz). 
The following characteristics apply to all the species of Gyrestis. They are very delicate and strikingly colour¬ 
ed with exceedingly tender and thin, but unusually large wings whose surface is out of all proportion with the 
slightly-built, slender and delicate body. The eyes are large, prominent and naked; palpi long, pointed, 
beak-like, slightly curved upwards, resembling those of the genus Libythea. The principal and most striking 
markings found on both wings in all the species consist in finer or coarser blackish bands running parallel 
to the body and at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the wings; of these bands always three unite on 
each wing to form a broader submarginal fascia. In the white-coloured species these bands or streaks are so 
fine that, in combination with the frequently black veins, they remind one of the meridian lines on a map, 
which has given rise in British India and the Straits to the popular and expressive name “the Map”. Also in 
the following descriptions of the different species I shall frequently refer to the “meridional stripes” meaning 
thereby just those transverse stripes placed proximally to the triple submarginal band. Leaving aside a short 
stripe just at the base which is generally only visible on the f. w., we distinguish invariably three such stripes, 
which shall hereafter be termed, counting from the base toward the outer margin, “first or inner, second or middle 
and third or outer meridional stripe”. On the h. w. and often also toward the anal angle of the f. w. the middle 
one of the three transverse streaks composing the submarginal band is cut up into sections which, frequently 
bordered with a lighter or different colour, resemble the links of a chain; I shall frequently have occasion 
to refer in the course of this treatise to this ,,chain-pattern“. 
The $ differs from the $ only in the lighter and less conspicuous colouring and the larger size, but 
never in having the markings or colours different; often a recognition of the sex is only possible by examin¬ 
ing the anterior pair of feet, which are in J thickly covered with very delicate, thin and short, silk-like, pecto¬ 
ral hair, whereas in $ they are scantily clothed with much longer hair and show distinctly a gradually thicke¬ 
ning tarsus. The $$ of the species which inhabit the main land and the larger islands in the west, are extra¬ 
ordinarily scarce, whereas those of the species found on the smaller islands are much more frequently met 
with and more easily captured; this unexplainable but nevertheless certain fact has also been observed in 
connection with other species and may have something to do with the size of the particular islands. Hag ex 
reports that on the smaller islands (Banka, Bawean, Dampier) both sexes are found in about equal numbers, 
indeed it often happens, that the are superseded by the whereas on the larger islands and on the continent 
the latter are but rarely met with (Martin). 
As regards the sexual organs, Gyrestis approximates to Calinaga, and on the whole more to the 
Apaturidae than the Limenitidae. Tegumen without scaphium and membranous appendage; uncus with 
a short sharp point, greatly distended at the base. Valve uniform saccate, anteriorly semispherical, 
provided with long bristles. Penis long, pencil-shaped. Saccus uncommonly slim, tubular. The larva 
resembles that of Pseudergolis ; it is most phantastically marked, green with white lateral stripes, with 
two horns at the head and one each upon the 5. and 11. segments; in the brown-yellow pupa one can easily 
distinguish the two appendages at the head containing the long palpi of the future imago. The larva was 
found by Wahnes living gregariously on some species of shrub having very hard and rough leaves, determined 
by Hagen as Delima sarmentosa L. Moreover they feed on Ficus and Urostigma belonging to the Artocarpeae; 
possibly also onCovellia, those most curious tropical trees sending out long aerial roots, which on reaching the 
ground form a new tree; it was in one of these trees which are sacred to the Indians, called Banian or Waringin, 
that Vishnu was born and in whose shade, twenty-five centuries ago, Buddha sat meditating. 
When undisturbed these lovely butterflies have a sailing, poised flight without perceptibly raising or lowering 
their wings. One often sees them, as they search for water, rapidly flying along some forest-path, when it is almost 
impossible to distinguish the white kinds from the accompanying Pieridcie. Mostly one finds them sitting on moist 
spots in the road or on the wet sand at the edge of small water-courses or creeks, the wings widely expanded, 
greedily sipping the liquid. Fruhstorfer reports (Iris XV, vol. I, 1902 p. 170): “The white species of Gyrestis and 
also lutea are almost without exception found resting on moist spots or on the shore-sands of the rivers appearing, 
as they sit with expanded, slightly lowered wings, like specimens that have been stretched in the old English 
fashion”. It seems that their delicate body needs an abundance of water in order to protect it from the desicc- 
