610 
NEPTIS. By H. Fruhstorfer. 
and strongly curved, very broad submarginal band. Cilia white. Beneath it is easily distinguished from all 
other Neptis by the monotonous, faded, pale ochreous colouring from which stand out the pale yellowish 
markings. The hindwing has the submarginal band lilac, the costal margin red-brown; forewing with a jet- 
paliens. black, square spot close to the extremity of the cell between the submedian and lower median. — paliens Fruhst. 
zaida. was founded upon the dry-season form, with yellow, occasionally also white spots, and zaida Westw. is the 
rainy-season form with dark ochreous markings on the upper surface. It is rather scarce, and only found from 
Masuri to Sikkim, at altitudes of up to 7000 ft., between May and July. Grose-Smith is said to possess a spe¬ 
cimen from the Siamese Shan States. Elwes observed it during the rare intervals of sunshine in the rainy-season 
circling around the highest tops of oak-trees, alighting on the leaves, but rarely descending to the ground. 
sylvana. N. sylvaraa Oberth., described from Tsekou in Yunnan, differs on the under surface from zaida in the 
purer yellow ground-colour, the prolonged black median portion of forewing and the narrower, clear yellow 
bands on hindwings. 
thisbe. N. thisbe Men. (Vol.I, p. 178) of which a small specimen from the Amur is figured (125d) under the erro¬ 
neous name of ilos Fruhst., occurs in the Amur Region in two forms which greatly differ in size: a) from the 
Upper Amur near the mouth of the Schilka with an expanse of 53—60 mm; with this must be classed also the 
specimens from the Ussuri; b) from the Coast Province near Chabarofska with an expanse of 68—76 mm. -— 
dilutior. dilutior Oberth. from Yunnan, already described in Vol. I, p. 179. ■—■ obscurior Oberth. from Szetchuan. 
obscurior. 
nycteus. N. nycteus is the older name for the species better known under the name of themis Leech. ■ —- nycteus 
Nicev. is distinguished from themis (I, 54 f) by the much broader transverse bands which are white instead of 
ochreous. The intramedian spots on forewing seem to be twice the size of those of themis. The collective 
species has its home in China, nycteus representing the most southern branch in Sikkim and Southern Tibet, 
where it is exceedingly scarce, a fact to be observed in nearly every species with regard to the forms found 
on the outer limits of its range of distribution. Descriptions are published of 5 specimens which were taken 
in June and July at altitudes of between 6 —-16 000 ft. Oberthur has received specimens of nycteus from Lachin- 
themis. Lachoong varying above from white to yellowish. — themis Leech a great number of which from Siau Lu is 
iheodora. contained in my collection, has been described in Vol. I, p. 179. — theodora Oberth. from Tseku in Yunnan is 
theiis. a dark local form of the preceding. - — thetis Leech (Vol. I, p. 179, pi. 54 f), according to Oberthur a separate 
ilos. species, is presumably only a form of nycteus with white instead of yellow median band on hindwing. — ilos 
Fruhst. was sent to me by Dr. Moltrecht from the Amur. The description is based on a very 
small specimen remarkable for the greatly obscured and reduced markings of the upper surface. Cellular streak 
on forewing and median band on hindwing hardly one half as wide as in themis, but the colouring of the under 
surface agrees with that of Chinese specimens. Having heard meanwhile from Dr. Moltrecht that he received 
in exchange from Mr. Charles Oberthur a number of butterflies in papers from West China, I fear that the 
above described ilos $ did not come at all from the Amur, but was accidentally mixed up with specimens 
yunnana. from there. In this place must also be mentioned N.yunnana Oberth. and N. nemorum Oberth., both from Tseku, 
nemorum. which were already described in Vol. I, p. 179. nemorum I consider, in accordance with Oberthur, to be a 
sylvarum. distinct species, on account of the violet median band on the under surface of the hindwings. But sylvarum 
Oberth. is also by its author taken to be only a darker form of nemorum. Tseku. 
manasa. N. maiiasa Moore was united with nycteus by Bingham in his ‘Fauna of British India’. Although I 
have never seen it in natura, I find on comparison of the two figures given by Moore a considerable difference, 
in as much as manasa has the median band on the hindwing proximally essentially narrower and accompanied 
distally by three sharply separated parallel bands, whereas nycteus and themis-thetis-ilos only display one, violet 
or greyish-yellow band. As the upper surface, however, is hardly to be distinguished from that of nycteus, 
it is possible that manasa only represents an individual aberration, especially as only one specimen was taken 
at the time of its discovery in 1857 the real home of which is unknown; its colouring would point towards 
the north-western Himalaya as its place of origin. According to reports Oberthur received in 1906 three 
specimens from near Darjeeling which were taken together with zaida. 
antilope. N. antilope Leech (Vol. I, p. 178, pi. 54 d, e) appears from the two specimens collected by Leech 
at Hongkong in March 1886 to be smaller than specimens from Central and Western China. Walker does 
not mention it in Iris List of Lepidoptera of Hongkong, which only names N. hylas L. and Phaedyma columella Cr. 
N. heliodore approaches in its delicate external appearance much more the yellow Rahinda and the 
hereafter mentioned Bimbisara than the heretofore described larger species, but its structure refers it to 
heliodore. the true Neptis. heliodore F., originally described from Siam, may be recognized by the more or less conspicuous, 
strongly undulate anteterminal band of pale fulvous distally accompanying the subapical and intramedian 
spots. Specimens of the wet-season and insular forms have the median spots separated, those of the dry 
