OCR Text |
Show 510 LIEUT.-COL. C. SWINHOE ON [Nov. 4, Kandahar, carefully recording captures each day ; and in separating species I found that, although all four of these forms seemed to be common at Kurrachee, I had still a number of examples that seemed to belong to none of them, and yet were closely allied to each. On my return from field service, when passing through Kurrachee, I engaged a man to collect for me from April to August 1883, and Mr. Murray, the Curator of the Kurrachee Museum, very kindly agreed to have the collections brought to him daily for labelling. The result is that, after setting out some hundreds of examples, I can show a perfect series from T. phoenius (of Sind) to T. dulcis. The normal form, I believe, must have been T. phoenius. It is beautifully and clearly marked, and is quite distinct from all the other species of the T. danae group. But as T. dulcis was first named, T. phoenius, as well as T. dirus and T. eboreoides, must sink into synonyms. The types of all four forms,when taken separately, appear to be quite distinct; but from examination of my long series captured in the same months of the year at the same place, I think I have satisfied Mr. Butler that all are of the same species. Similar variations, it will be seen, occur in the T. etrida group, also in the T. eucharis group, from Bombay and Southern India generally; and it is worthy of remark that, although the variations seem to occur commonly in the group Callosune, the whole of the subgenus ldmais appears to be remarkably constant in all the yet known species. 47. TERACOLUS IMMACULATUS. Teracolus immaculatus, C. Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1884, p. 443. Kurrachee, August. This is, I am inclined to think, only a spotless variety of T. dulcis. 48. TERACOLUS SUBROSEUS. Ter. subroseus, C. Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1884, p. 443, pi. xl. figs. 6,7. Kurrachee, July and August. A perfectly distinct and pretty species. 49. TEBACOLUS ETRIDA. Anthocaris etrida, Boisduval, Sp. Gen. Lep. i. p. 576 (1836). Ter. purus, Butler, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 160, n. 113, pi. vii. f. 14, 15. Kurrachee, April to July, very common. Examples vary much in size and in markings and general coloration. The hind wings of some of the males are almost immaculate, and many of the females are without the discal markings of the type; but, as in the T.-dulcis group, the number of intermediates found on an examination of a very large series makes it impossible to separate them. |