Abstract
WE have received two recently issued parts of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (vol. lxiii. part ii. Nos. 1 and 3) containing, inter alia, an important paper by Mr.Lionel de Nicéville (the author of the admirable book on the butterflies of India, Ceylon, and Burma, now approaching completion), on new and little-known butterflies from the Indo-Malayan region, illustrated by five excellent coloured plates, representing species belonging to most of the principal families represented in the district. Among the species figured is a handsome new species of Stichophthalma(S. sparta) from Manipur, allied to the well-known Chinese S. howqua, of Westwood, belonging to a genus allied to the great blue Morphos of South America, and not inferior to some of them in size; a gynandomorphous specimen of the common, but very remarkable, Indian Fritillary, Argynnis niphe, L.,the female of which mimics the abundant, highly-protected, and much-imitated Danaus chrysippus, L.; several species of Laxita, Butler, a beautiful genus allied to our Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, but much larger, and with rounded brown wings, generally suffused with crimson on the fore wings, and marked with metallic blue spots beneath; three species of Papilio, two of which mimic species of the widely-removed sub-family Euplæinæ; and many other interesting species. Several genera, as well as a large number of species, are described as new, and much fresh information is given relative to species already known. Several very useful lists and tables are also included in the paper, relative to the species of Daphla, allied to D. teuta, Doubleday and Hewit-son, and those of the genera Gerydus, Boisduval, Logania, Distant, &c. When we look at the number of important books and papers that are now constantly issuing from the press on the butterflies of various parts of the British East Indies, it seems strange to remember that thirty years ago almost nothing had been published specially on the subject, except Horsfield and Moore's Catalogue of the Lepidoptera in the East India Company's Museum, and Westwood's “Cabinet of Oriental Entomology.”
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Scientific Serials. Nature 51, 500 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051500a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051500a0