80 
LEPIBOPTERA INDICA. 
except in Ceylon, the Nicobars and the Malay Peninsula, J. almana is found wherever 
J. asterie occurs ; and from observations I have made on the time of appearance of 
the two forms, I have found that J . almana is the prevailing form in the dry-season, 
while J. asterie abounds in the wet-season, the times of appearance and periods of 
existence occasionally overlap somewhat; a worn J. almana may be found early in 
the rains, or a J. asterie now and then in the early winter, but speaking generally, 
the summer brood is J. asterie , and the winter brood is J. almana, and it is very 
probable that further investigation will reveal that they are merely seasonal forms of 
one and the same species. The two forms are variable also both in outline of the 
wings and in the markings of the underside: in some specimens of J. asterie the 
forewing is almost as truncate, and the hindwing as prominently tailed, as in 
J. almana, while the ocelli on the underside are very inconstant; they vary much 
in size, and in some specimens they are so pale and obscure as to be barely traceable, 
and it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide to which form these intermediate speci¬ 
mens belong. The absence of J. almana from the localities noted above, if it be a 
fact, might be accounted for by the seasons in those parts being more equable and 
more uniformly moist throughout the year; but the question of the distinctness or 
otherwise of the two forms can only be satisfactorily settled by a series of experi¬ 
ments in breeding them. J. asterie is a common butterfly throughout the tract of 
heavy rainfall, and is abundant where it occurs ; it frequents gardens and glades in 
jungles, but shuns the bare open plains ” (de Mceville, Butt. Ind. ii. p. 68). Col. 
J. W. Yerbury records the capture of Almana at Attock, north-west of Campbellpur, 
in March, and at Hurripur in October. Asterie was taken at Khairabad, opposite 
Attock across the Indus, in April, May, and July, and at Campbellpur in May, and 
at Hassan Abdal in May ” (Ann. N. H. 1888, p. 141.) Both Almana and Asterie 
are found in the Sarju and Kali Valleys, 2000 to 4000 feet elevation, in Kumaon, 
and in the Tarai. The prehensores are the same in both. I have no doubt that the 
former is the dry-season form and the latter the wet form. Colonel C. Swinhoe 
remarks that “ J. almana is common everywhere, in Bombay and the Deccan, all 
the year round, J. asterie is common in the latter half of the year. I am convinced 
that, although the types of each are so different, they are both one and the same 
insect, one being the normal and the other the dimorphic form, and I have a long 
series of examples showing every stage of variety between the two ” (P. Z. S. 1885, 
128). We possess a male, taken at Poona in March by Col. Swinhoe, which has the 
outline of both wings less angulated than in the normal dry-season form ( Almana ) 
and the colours and markings on the underside distinctly gradating to the wet- 
season form. “ J. asterie and J. almana, I am persuaded, are one and tbe same 
species. In the Central Provinces they are found in glades and gardens by the 
margins of streams and about tanks, and sits and fans its wings in the sunshine. 
