68 
INDIA 
same garden. It is one of the inconveniences of the method of 
“ enveloping ” one’s captures that so much is left to memory, and the 
chances of comparing insects are so very few. Dwarfed specimens 
of Precis orithyia were now very common; P. oenone and P. lemonias 
were less common but almost as small; several P. almana occurred. 
But in spite of the excessive drought and the consequent occurrence 
of dwarfs, 1 one of my specimens of Terias hecabe , taken at Benares, 
was quite of wet-season type. Gatopsilia pomona was represented 
by a very large male of the typical form and a smaller female in fine 
condition, exhibiting the transition to the catilla , Cram., or extreme 
dry-season form. Similarly, C. pyranthe was represented by a male 
of the typical and a female of the gnoma form. 
Together with the above were several smaller things: among the 
Blues Polyommatus baeticus occurred, while Catochrysops strabo, and 
the tiny Chilades putli , were both common. The Skipper Parnara 
mathias was also common, and I took one Telicota augias. The little 
Pyrale, Zinckenia fascialis , was in some numbers in one small flower¬ 
bed. Of the long-waisted Wasp, Eumenes esuriens, Fabr., I saw 
but one, a female. 
But among the frequenters of the small garden adjoining the 
hotel those that interested me most were the “ lobed ” and “ tailed ” 
Lycaenids, of which there were no less than four species. Of Aphnaeus 
ietis , Hew., I took a solitary male; of A. elima , Moore (which, 
however, de Niceville considered to be only a dry-season form of 
ictis), I secured two, also males. Of the third species, Pratapa dev a, 
Moore, but one turned up, and that had lost the anal angles, with 
their appendages, and a large part of both hind-wings, which had 
apparently been bitten off, absolutely symmetrically, by a lizard. 
The fourth species, Bapala melampus, was common, and I secured 
seven specimens, all, however, males. 
Concerning P. melampus I wrote to Dr. Dixey at the time: “ The 
Tailed Copper (or Hairstreak), first seen at Dilkusha, Lucknow, and 
found commonly here [Benares] to-day, greatly interests me. Not 
only is it very beautiful, but it is surprisingly hard to see, especially 
when at rest. Then the structure of the hind-wing is most strange; 
posterior to the tail (the next interspace but one) a portion of the 
1 This appears to contradict Prof. Poulton’s observation that the dry-season form 
of the seasonally dimorphic Precis sesamus, Trim., is in S. Africa larger than the 
wet-season form. But the sesamus that he weighed had passed the larva and pupa 
stages during the wet season, whereas my small Indian Precis were of the second dry- 
season brood at least, so that their larvae and pupae had been submitted to dry- 
season conditions. 
