II.—On a Melanic Specimen of Hestina nama, Doubleday

Abstract

In a collection of Indian butterflies purchased by the Edinburgh Museum in the year 1890, I found a specimen of Hestina which is of some interest. After carefully examining it, and comparing it with a figure by Oberthür of a form which he regards as a melanic aberration of the well-known Hestina nama, Doubleday, I have come to the conclusion that our example is another and more melanic form of the same species. From Oberthür's figure, which he calls ab. melanina (Études d'Entomologie, xx., 1896, p. 30, pl. 10, no. 177), the present specimen differs in the fore wing, in the absence of the inner row of whitish spots, in the size and position of the upper spots in the outer series, and in the spot at the anal angle being nearer to the base of the wing. At the base of the cell there is a rich cream-coloured sub-triangular spot, instead of the slender greenish streak. There is no ferruginous border to the hind wing, and the whitish streaks are more elongated, and in the anal half of the wing only very faintly indicated.