DARJILING 
81 
thyodamas, Boisd., in splendid condition. This, a Hymphalid, by the 
possession of a well-marked anal lobe to the hind-wing suggested the 
Bapala group of Lycaenids, but a close examination of the veins 
shows that neither lobe nor tail is homologous in the two widely 
separated genera. In addition to the above a second Gaduga tytia, 
Gray, was secured, the first having been netted 1000 ft. higher. This 
blue and black Danaine is distinguished by having brown hind-wings. 
Time was, however, getting on, and my sais was waiting with the 
pony by the little bridge, so I reluctantly mounted. I had not ridden 
far when I caught a glimpse of Kallima inachis , Boisd., flying by the 
roadside ; flinging myself out of the saddle I was fortunate in netting 
the butterfly of all others that I had wished to see alive. It proved 
to be a fine female; to wait to see in what attitude she would settle 
would have involved too great a risk, and alas ! no more were seen. 
A few minutes later my sais brought me a damaged Euploea with 
a lovely purple gloss; seeing many about (in spite of my uncle’s 
advice*) I foolishly did not keep it. 
These things happened close to the Tista bridge, by which the 
road to Lhasa crosses the river, here only some 650 ft. above the sea, 
so deeply are these Himalayan valleys cut down. Sad to say in a 
few minutes the winding of the road took me under the deep chill 
shadow of the mountain and the purple-glossed Euploeae and nearly 
all the other butterflies vanished for that day. A solitary Neptis 
aceris, together with a few Ixias pyrene, Huphina nerissa and Lampides 
elpis, were all that I saw; with them was a Hypsid day-flying moth, 
Trypheromera plagifera, Walk. 
The rest-house at Riang was reached too late for any more collect¬ 
ing, so I had to content myself with watching the long trains of 
Colonel Younghusband’s bullocks painfully dragging wagon-loads of 
compressed hay for the Tibetan expedition. Alas! for the once fair 
road, now a foot deep in white dust. 
December 19th. It was such a long march from Riang by way 
of Mongpu and Sareil back to Darjiling that little time could be 
given to collecting, moreover many hours were spent passing along a 
beautiful forest track in the deep afternoon shadow of the mountain. 
At the start, close to the river, the silvery-white Acropteris vagata, 
Moore, the only Uraniid that I came across, was conspicuously spread 
out upon a leaf. Hear Mongpu, at about 3000 ft., Ergolis merione 
was very common about the Castor-oil plant, Bicinus communis, upon 
which its larva feeds. A little higher up I came across Tieherra acte, 
Moore, a Lycaenid with very long tails that wave with the wind; 
1 See above, p. 5. 
G 
