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Show 1887.] LITTLE-KNOWN BUTTERFLIES FROM INDIA. 453 instead of ochreous. The markings of the underside of this sex, t0°i\/eem t0 be f a i r l y constant m a number of specimens. M y recent experiments proving by breeding from the esg that M. leda and M. ismene are but seasonal forms of one species, and the acquisition of both forms of M. bethami, has thrown a flood of light into m y mind regarding the Butterflies of this difficult genus. It may now, I think, be accepted as an axiom that in all tropical and subtropical countries in which the year is divided into two well-marked seasons, a dry and a wet, the Melanites that occur there will also have two well-marked forms,-a rains form, with slightly falcated fore wing, short tail to hind wing, and prominent ocelli on both wings on the underside; and a drv-season form, which has the fore wing highly falcate, a long tail to hind wing, and obsolete ocelli below. In the ' Lepidoptera of Ceylon,' in addition to M. leda and M. ismene (one species), M r . Moore records only M. tambra; but in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, is a specimen marked by M r Moore himself « M. suyudana," which certainly differs from the form Mr. Moore has figured and described as M. tambra. I possess in all six specimens of this group from Ceylon, and though they present but slight variation in the size of the ocelli (it should be remembered that Ceylon has a very equable climate throughout the year), there is a well-marked difference in outline, what I should call M. tambra being the rains form, and M. suyudana the dry-season form. In Sikkim we have, besides M. leda and M. ismene, M. zitenius, of which Herbst has figured the dry-season form and Mr. Distant1 the rains form; and M. aswa, Moore, the strongly ocellated rains form, and M. bela, Moore, and M. duryodana (the two latter I now believe to be but varieties of one form), the dry-season form of a third species. An intimate knowledge of the species of Melanitis occurring in other parts of the Old World, to be obtained only by living amongst them and carefully noting their different forms and the seasons when they occur, and by breeding them from the egg, would, I feel sure, reveal the fact of the seasonal dimorphism which occurs in all the species of the genus, and I trust that notice being now drawn to the subject, collectors and entomologists will devote attention to it. To return to M. bethami, I have described the rains form from a pair taken on the 8th August, and the dry-season form from five pairs taken between the 15th and 27th October at Pachmarhi, by Mr. J. A. Betham, after whom I have much pleasure in naming the species. CYLLOGENES JANET^E, n. sp. Hab. Bhutan. Expanse. 3 3'5, $ 3-55 inches. M A L E . U P P E R S I D E : both wings deep dull brown, almost black. Fore wing with a broad rich ochreous curved subapical band, attenuated towards the anal angle, which it hardly reaches, the rich 1 Ehopalocera Malayana, p. 412. n. 3, pl. xxxviii. fig. 2,3 (1886). |
