yin he
Thiet be 4 BY
Vey say yet toned LO,
We aaear alates
Wie beeet Ya
way
La
Ai '
Lele nba Na eye
054 ” in : nas
ys PONT ENeH Math Maen yy ancy paen an ain : HoH at
sts a Tee ye yates sl epg! Hi PAR aca Ripa JPR ANESES! Oa Lek \ aii ye yarn HI Ebr ies 4 fis ears ‘ is 4 H cies Baier at eek f Gato rate ; hy mys eave sanetety ep oeaness ? A hy i i oe tees’ i Ae teaL ees Hits 7 taberatan: Arey Hew HA ets reel ite
fee Stee! v Dene
Lease raid of Pgh Sat b> th kN
a tf Saat ne SN Tivine ene es NE MASE Pas s Fp a i 5 present Seng AT NENA AE Berea beruye way] EUS) ate vs
Nite cad ak ord saya yee
SS ikai
Srecnral uit v4
yaar eke bi Ak LEE NE NADY © HTS oar
Ake aig
Cugeess eae
Aha Re Jee dad tage x asad
rides hyena se iT pa get ha NK Satara ger ie Ape Fipsohetey Gate Bala ¢ oT AN ibiesee bes peed Sitetpunet ota fed x tea * dailnpigy ein
re Redhat i
Baavter saree brite Soe As e By ’ bias ¥
PORE SB eye ets
Bets
RY Th eae ae he : q Op LY ‘. J HH
NAA ta eran 28 De eer i rd ; Be seg : H A
; 7 $ 5 ; rh tuy shy 7 L . oS, ‘ ocihistaturhie
iy iol Mea an ab ee ; ik Ws * vr ia at u ae - ? : i i ‘ DRE Br Betis
f s a7 ’ ; t tee + ‘i i
yds
“a
boas i)
Bun fo
a nia f " Pa A ere aU ‘ oy ad a ee cilia Mure Sane aN aE ( ites ts \ Bagi 9 had a Shy RRR UPA iF cheese “ sth 9 AN Tay Pass ay bye r OE t hia yt Was ano f A hy . peal
i =
elt won ; ee yh
RAVE ESP P te a a Val Marais suaiahs
i “ i Meta th ae Rall AAR
Me Mas ith a napa dunks lets Bh Anat {
hy,
bay Ce eanee <e Veit Ne ee
ue
ZgeOnin S ii on aS x ca 3 ae Fa > } : cn a vic ene. Ben 4, Soe a ee i SVess
sti
i ~al
Ki
all |
te. en : %
:
i
Se
fs Ve
ae
oy : ” a
iz
P| tre oe 5 - me ‘incre
os Se
.
Sy,
il Ci Ha yr nee
o i
A Lot ES ;
ce
ae “0 es
Soe * Zoot! iy
EES
% re tip EOS
GEO
a
i ue >
24 Ms \é
i | aii qa)
‘ I | ih . a
“eg ial
i A
ne
ef
== ee — ys a No, o
oO v S se) “0 “e | il Ss mee Q le : oS i,’ it 3 : car 7
S
| = =f ee sa J Se ce =) i:
i | oy il , ee s th wv
uh
! Li nn
fl ye at
Noe
: es Se OG ol
oe
an nome sa
BS
he ven
“’ = px
<p
- GS
faenes ate ee
Nee ae “he
(eae. sy
r in
‘| a | |
EIOL IN Sh etfond, som poe’ aN
e fees
YS
2, A * ih: 2
tea Renee
ist. Soc.
4
Nat.H
Journ. Bombay
Uu9pUu0'T
UAT
ou1omy)
Sorel Ude FUTy
“SANVNSS © STIVN (iopouapaey stsdos0py3) CINSINEG N33Y9)'SISHOHOTIHOD againiag
S9NVYO AHL
‘Tsp ueTeg:
v)
i ' 1 i
Wy] OusLo.ny")
Ongy Uta UT
“SIVNSS 8 3TVN (ipa IMpaey stsdo.zopy9)
(ineina N33uY9)'SISAOHNOTHD G3alI13e-39NVYO BH1L
20g ISH FEN
a cansontlan Ingpipm ww 1%,
Nov Lestat
ee, way ZUG; uy \
ny cae
JOURNAL
OF THE
GIVES ZA
Alatural History Society,
No. 1] | BOMBAY. [Vol. VIII.
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR,
By E. C. Stuart-BakeEr. Part VY. (With a Plate.)
(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 19th April, 1893).
HEMIXUS MACLELLANDI. THe RUFOUS-BREASTED BULBUL.
Gates’ “By of B. B,” No. 72; Vol, 1, p. 171; Wypsipetes maclelland:, Jerdon’s “B. of India,’ No. 447, Vol. IL, p. 79; Hume ; “Nests and Eggs,” (2nd Ed.), Vol. I, p. 168; Oates’ “ Fauna of India,” Vol. I., p. 275.
Drscription.—Forehead, crown and back of head bright vandyke-brown, the shafts being pale reddish-white give the head a streaky appearance. Remainder of upper plumage, including wing-coverts and tertiaries, olive-green ; brightest and sometimes inclining to yellow on the upper tail-coverts ; primaries and secondaries brown edged with olive-green ; tail bright olive-green ; lores
and cheeks grey, or grey and white; ear-coverts, sides of neck, breast and 1
2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIIi.
flanks chestnut ; belly albescent, more or less suffused with rufous ; chin and upper throat white ; under tail-coverts favescent-rufous. Bull, upper mandible dark blue-grey, culmen, tip and base of lower mandible dusky, remainder fleshy-white ; legs dull yellowish to purplish-brown ; irides of various shades of reds and, red-browns.
MMale—Length 9°5”; wing 4°4” ; tail 44" ; targus °75" ; bill at front ion and from gape 12”,
Female—Length barely 9” ; both wing and tail as nearly as possible 4:2”, the wing sometimes as much as 4°25” or even more.
Niprrication.—I have taken a considerable number of nests of this species, all of which were of almost exactly the same description. They are placed. in trees at heights varying from twenty to forty feet, more often nearer the former than the latter, and in every instance the nest has been suspended from a fork of a small branch. It is suspended much in the same manner as an Oriole’s, and not like that of Hypszpetes and other bulbuls. ‘The main portion of the nest is made of coarse grasses, bamboo leaves, soft bark in long shreds, and of other suitable fibrous materials. Moss is never used, moss roots and fern roots very seldom, except in the lining, which is sometimes composed of the latter.
The grass is so used as to pass under and through the base of the nest, and is then brought inside and over the fork, round the nest again and over the fork on the opposite side. This is carried out with all, or nearly all, the longer materials, so that the nest assumes a rather bulky and, often, very untidy appearance, It is, though, very strong, and it requires no inconsiderable force to detach it from its support.
The lining is generally composed of rather fine grasses, more or less mixed with fine, soft fern roots. In some nests it is composed almost entirely of the last material, and in a few there is little or no lining of any sort whatsoever.
They are rather shallow, as a rule, but differ considerably in this respect. I have taken nests of depths ranging from 1:2” only to over 2°9”. In breadth they vary from 8°2” to. very nearly 5”.
The branch selected as a site for the nest is generally one towards the outer part of the tree, and it is, therefore, often very difficult to obtain -without cutting off a large portion of the branch.
The normal number of the eggs is three, four is quite exceptional, and two very common.
The ground-colour is a very pale reddish-white or dead-white, and they are spotted profusely throughout with dark brownish-red. Underlying these marks are numerous tiny specks of pale inky, which, however, are not notice- able until the egg is very closely looked into.
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR 3
In a few eggs the general tone is rather brighter, and in these there is also more of the ground-colour to be seen, but the typical egg is decidedly dull- coloured.
Towards the large end the markings generally tend to form a cap or, less often, a zone.
In shape they are typically a rather long regular oval; in a few eggs a little compressed towards the small end. Abnormal specimens tend towards the short broad oval or broad peg-top form.
The shell is smooth and fairly close in texture, but none of my eggs exhibit any gless.
In size they vary more than any other bulbuls’ eges that I know. I have them varying in length from ‘74” to 1:1” and in breadth from °58” to °71”. The average size of 19 eges is °91” X °66”, or rather more both ways.
They are rather late breeders. June is the month in which most eggs will be taken, and nearly as many in July. My earliest and latest dates are the 23rd. May, 1890, and 22nd July, 1888, respectively. They, no doubt, lay well on into August, but I have never been in their principal breeding haunts during that month,
I have only once or twice observed this bulbul as low as 2,000 feet, even in the cold weather, but it does sometimes descend into the Plains.
‘They are most common between three thousand and four thousand feet, breeding chiefly at and above the latter height up to nearly 7,000 feet. I have not personally observed it in flocks; and from the little that has been recorded of its habits, it does not appear to be sociable during the cold weather as are most bulbuls.
They keep much to the higher branches of tall trees, but do not hesitate to descend lower, even to scrubby bushes when these are rendered attractive by the plentitude of their berries. I have examined a good many birds, but have neyer discovered any remains of insects, and I believe they are almost entirely, if not quite, vegetable feeders.
It has a very pleasant call, and its many other and diversified notes are all, more or less, agreeable, none that I have heard heing at all harsh in character. It has also a full sweet song, consisting { .ee bars, which it constantly repeats, but I have only heard this uttered during the breeding season. When singing, it erects its crest, the feathers of which, though short, are full. The lanceolate feathers of the chin and throat are often also puffed out, giving the bird the appearance of having a most disproportionately large head.
Tt is not a shy bird, and I have frequently watched either a single bird or a pair within less than twenty yards. They have not been at all disturbed by my
4. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, VIII.
appearance on such occasions, but continued to feed until I tried to approach still nearer, when they would fly away for a short distance and recommence feeding.
The flight is rather quicker and straighter than most bulbuls’, but not as strong as, though more level than, that of Hypsipetes.
It is nowhere very common, and is rather local in its habits. I have noticed that where Psarisomus is to be found, there are nearly always a few of these birds also. This species, however, keeps to the outskirts of the forest, and will not be found in the interior. Its favourite resort is scattered trees, with an undergrowth of grass (not bush). I have also seen it in thin scrub jungle, in cultivation jhums, and yery often amongst the jungle of nullas which are surrounded by open country.
MicRoPUS MELANOCEPHALUS,
THE BLACK-HEADED BULBUL.
Brachypodius melanocephalus, Hume’s Cat. No. 457 67s.; Hume and Davison, 8. F., Vol. VI, p. 318; Micropus melanocephalus, Osta," Brot BAB.” Vol. 1p. 181 3 a.,: * fauna of BS, 1 Bods Vol. 1., p. 294,
DescrrpTion.— Whole head and throat, extending to the upper breast, black, brilliantly glossed with blue and purple , remainder of upper plumage olive-green, brighter on the rump and yellow on the upper tail-coverts ; breast and flanks the same, shading into bright yellow on the belly and under tail-coverts. Tail olive-green for half its length, then black and tipped yellow, narrowly on the centre feathers and increasingly broadly on the others.
Primary-coverts dull black, very narrowly edged olive-green ; other coverts wholly olive on the visible portions. Primaries and secondaries black, the first almost imperceptibly, the latter broadly-edged olive-green; the tertiaries, with the outer webs, all of this colour.
The feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts are very dark grey at the base and then black, the tips alone being broadly yellow, consequently the rump nearly always looks as if barred with black, though, in a perfect specimen, in which the rump feathers le properly, these black markings scarcely show at all. Bill very dark plumbeous, nearly black ; irides pale blue, varying a little in depth of colour, but never at all dark ; legs dark plumbeous, claws black, mouth and gape bluish, tinged fleshy occasionally.
Length 6°8” to 7:1"; wing 3°2” to 3°35”; tail 3°3”; tarsus °5”; bill at front ‘55” and from gape °8”.
Nivirication.—I have taken but one nest of this bird, and on this the male bird. was trapped. The nest might easily haye been mistaken for one of the
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 5
common Bengal bulbul (MJolpastes bengalensis). It was a good deal stouter, however, than 8 out of 10 of the nests of that bird, and was also more neatly and compactly made. Outwardly it was made of the tough brown stems of a climbing plant, together with a few fine soft twigs, and one or two coarse pieces of grass blades; inside these was a scanty, but neat, lining of fine grass-stems and a single skeleton leaf. It was placed in the fork of a stout branch of a thorny bush, some three feet from the ground. The surrounding country was dense jungle, merely a little lighter and clearer in the immediate vicinity. Heavy rain had fallen on the two days previous to my finding the nest, and when taken, it was sopped through and through, but it still, when removed, held well together, and was just as strong and compact as before when it again dried.
The eggs were three in number, slightly incubated, and they, like the nest, may also be matched by many eggs of either I. bengalensis or burmanicus. The ground-colour is a pale fleshy-pink, and the markings consist of large and small blotches and freckles of reddish and purplish-brown, the underlying marks being a pale dull inky. Some of the primary blotches are very large varying from *1” to nearly °3” in length and up to ‘17” in breadth.
The distribution of both blotches and freckles is fairly equal, and in two - eggs very numerous over the whole surface. In the third egg the marks are fewer in number, with the exception of the very pale secondary blotches. The texture is just the same as in the eggs of Molpastes, but there is a very faint gloss, 7
They measure 97" X *65”, ‘96” X °60” and °93”%°64”. In shape they are long ovals, rather compressed towards the smaller end and slightly pointed.
The nest was taken on the 12th of May, 1891, at an elevation of about 1,600 feet.
This bird is by no means rare in North Cachar, but I think it must be partially migratory in its habits, for some years it is quite plentiful, and during others hardly a single bird can be obtained.
During the cold weather, and well on into May, it is found in large flocks in company with the next species (if it is a good species), keeping, asa rule, to scattered forest or light jungle of some kind, rarely being found in quite open country, and very nearly as seldom in heavy forest. It appears to be most common in valleys which are well wooded, but at the same time have frequent open spaces at no great distance from one another, and the J. atinga Valley and. the low hills surrounding the Tea Estates to the North-West of Cachar seem to be their most favourite haunts, It never, during the cold weather, seems ta descend to low bushes, keeping almost entirely to the higher trees and to the
6 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
tops of even such. Now and then, tempted by some unusually luxuriant growth of fruit or berries, it may descend to the higher bushes ; but, generally, they seem to withstand temptation, and I have seldom seen them lower down than the tops of small saplings. ‘The very few birds I have come across during the breeding season alter their habits greatly, and I have most often seen them in thick bushes or undergrowth, sometimes in the interior of dense forest, more seldom just on the outskirts of it. At this period, too, they become very silent, though at other times their loud and musical chirp is con- stantly being uttered. The ‘‘ melancholy double whistle,” mentioned by Davi- son as being one of their notes, I do not think I have heard, but I once, during a rainy afternoon in March, 1892, heard some bird giving vent to his sadness in a leng, soft whistle, suddenly terminating in a lower key, and this note may have been that of either 2. melanocephalus or IL. cinereiventris. It was more like the rainy weather call of ygithina typlia than that of any other bird I know, but it was far deeper and softer.
The bird appears to be almost entirely a fruit-eater, but that it is not al- together so was proved by my finding two wood-lice in the stomach of one and the remains of a small green grasshopper in another. White ants, of course, these birds eat, but I know of no fruit or grain-eating bird that will not readily, even greedily, eat those insects.
I have never come across this bird above 2,600 feet (about), but in Burma it seems to ascend far higher.
Two of the birds of this species in my collection, as also two of the next, I owe to Mr. H. A. Hole, of Jellalpur, and the notes he has sent me about the birds agree with my own experiences.
MIcCROPUS CINEREIVENTRIS.
Tur GREY-BREASTED BULBUL.
Brachypodius cinereiventris, Hume’s Cat. No. 457; quat.; Hume and Davison, 8. F., Vol. VII, p. 319; Micropus cinererewtris, Oates’ “B. of B. B.,” Vol. L., p. 295 ; ad., “ Fauna of B. I. Birds,” Vol. L., p. 295,
DEscRIPTION.—Breast and flanks pure erey, darker nearest the head and. paler lower, where it gradually merges into the yellow of the belly and vent. In some birds the grey extends over a great part of the abdomen, in others only over the upper portion. ‘The interscapulary plumage generally, and the hind neck always, the same colour as the upper breast.
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR, 7
I can discover no other difference between this bird and the last. The margins to the primaries seem to me to be much the same in both birds, I know nothing in its habits, &c., to distinguish it from J. melanocephalus. In 1891 I also took a nest containing three young which, unfortunately, were merely naked squabs when found, and all died within two days; in spite of the most anxious care being bestowed on them, The female which I trapped on the nest was alone caught, and the male bird I never saw, so that I could not say whether it was of this or the last species.
I have spent a good deal of time and trouble in trying to find evidence to prove either that 27. melanocephalus and I. cinereiventris are one and the same bird or that they are distinct.
In the first place, neither Mr. Hole nor I have ever seen a flock of either kind unmixed with the other, and the only times I have taken either kind on the nest, the pair to it was not obtained or even seen.
It is queer that all the specimens of J. melanocephalus in my collection should be males, whereas all those of I. cinereiventris except one, should be females, The one exception is a young male in imperfect plumage. One of my speci- mens of IM. cinereiventris (given me by Mr, Hole) shows very narrow, obscure margins of olive-green on the grey feathers behind the neck.
Again, one of the birds in Lord Tweedale’s collection is said by him to be “ina stage of transition from yellow to grey.”
The amount of grey is not constant on the lower plumage, and on the upper is sometimes entirely absent. Personally I believe the two birds to be identical, but it would certainly seem that neither sex nor age can have any- thing to do with the differences in coloration. In Lord Tweedale’s bird ‘the change is from yellow to grey, whereas in mine, if it is changing, the reverse would seem to be in process, Thus in the former bird it would appear that age was destroying the power of secreting the yellow pigment, whereas in the latter the assumption would be that the young bird had not developed the power. I have had several collectors kind enough to give me the sexes of their specimens and of the sexed birds. I have only heard of two male MI. cinerewentris. and of but one female M. melanocephalus. The birds in the Asiatic Museum are not sexed, Had sex, however, been the cause of the difference in coloration, it would most certainly have been ascertained in the fine collection in the British Museum, if not in those of private persons.
The nest I have above mentioned was exactly like that of the former species already described, and was found in the same valley and on the following day. It was in a bush placed at about two feet from the ground, and, as it was surrounded by cane, was only got at with a good deal of difficulty,
8 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
CHLOROPSIS AURIFRONS. Tur GoLp-FRONTED CHLOROPSIS.
Phylornis aurifrons, Jerdon’s “ B,I.,” Vol. IL, p. 99 ; Hume and Davison, 8. F., Vol. VI., p. 826 ; Hume’s Cat., No. 465 ; 2d., 8. F., Vol. XL, p. 184 ; Chloropsis aurifrons, Oates’ “ B. of B. B.,” Vol. L, p- 205 ;¢d. * Fauna B. 1.” Vol. L., p. 234.
Descrrerion.—Forehead and crown golden-orange; chin, cheeks and extreme upper throat brilliant purplish-blue; remainder of throat, ear-coverts, round the eye, lores, and a narrow line up to the top of the nostrils black. An indistinct supercilium and a broad line surrounding the black golden; a patch on the wing, consisting of nearly all the lesser coverts, bright pale blue; edge of wing rather darker blue; inner and concealed part of wing-feathers dark brown; lower aspect of tail lead-colour ; remainder of plumage bright grass-green, lighter below and sometimes inclined to an emerald tinge. ;
The female has the gold collar far less developed and often almost absent, the blue of the throat mixed with black, and the colour of the crown less vivid.
The young bird in its first plumage has the head wholly green, a moustachial streak of the same colour as the wing-patch in the adult ; chin and throat tinged with the same. Primaries and secondaries edged with brilliant greenish-blue ; tail suffused with the same, and with the under surface wholly pale dusky-blue,
A young bird in the Spring of the second year has the forehead golden; the upper throat and chin green; the black of the lower throat mixed with green, and with only two or three traces of the golden collar. The moustachial streak is small, and the wing patch the same.
Bill black ; gape and base of lower mandible hommy ; mouth bluish ; irides light to dark brown ; legs pale, clear to dark, dusky-plumbeous ; the younger the bird, the brighter and clearer the colour.
Male—Length 7°5" to 7°8" ; wing 3°7” to 3°85” ; tail 2°7” to 2:9"; tarsus °7" ; bill at front °7” and from gape 1”.
Female—7'2" to 75" ; wing 3°5" to 3°65" ; tail 2°4” to 2:6",
NIpIFICATION.—The nest is a rather shallow cup, varying in breadth from about 3°5” to about 4” and in depth from about 1°3” to 1°8”, few nests being more than 1°5”, It is made of very fine twigs, moss roots and the tendrils of climbing plants, outwardly bound together, and also interwoven with grasses, moss, cobwebs, and a material which appears to be the inner bark of some tree. Some nests have no lining at all, but others are lined with fine grass-stems or, less often, with fern and moss roots, One nest taken in 1887 was lined with
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 9
the dead dry fronds of a species of fern moss, and another one had a number of dead leaves mixed with the lining of grass-stems.
Most nests are placed in between two or more horizontal twigs in a semi- pendant position, not like the nest of the genus Oriolus but more like the nests of the genera Hemixus, Zypsipetes, &c., having little more than half the depth of the nest below the supporting twigs. About one nest in three is placed in an. upright fork, and in such cases they are rather less strongly built, and fewer cobwebs are used for attachment purposes. As a rule, the nest is very neat, but some few have the outer surface covered with scraps aoe hanging on by a cobweb or two.
The eves appear to be of two fairly distinct types. In the most common the ground varies from very pale cream to a reddish-cream, deep tinted egys being exceptional. Most of the spots are very small, and in colour a dark reddish- brown; intermingled with these are sometimes a few streaks and short irregular lines of brown, so dark as to appear black unless closely looked into. The second type of ege has the ground-colour a clear pale cream, and the whole surface blotched and mottled with reddish and reddish-brown, and again with others, beneath these, of pale purple and lavender.
These last eges show a strong resemblance to some badly-marked, dull- coloured eggs of Criniger flaveolus. In shape they are a long, pointed oval, or a long regular oval, hardly compressed at all towards the smaller end. The shell is fairly close grained and smooth, but rather delicate. About two eggs in three show a faint gloss. Fifteen eggs taken in North Cachar average °94” x °69”, and vary in leneth between 86” and 1°1”, and in breadth between *62” and 69”. They commence breeding in the end of May or beginning of June, and their nests may be found throughout June and July up to nearly the end of August.
The earliest date I have recorded as having taken eggs is the 12th May, 1891, and the latest the 16th of August, 1892, This bird is the most common Chioropsis to be met with here, and is found in great numbers all the year round, descending in the cold weather to the plains, and sometimes, if but rarely, remaining there to breed, for in July, 1891, I had a nest sent to me containing two eggs, undoubtedly belonging to a bird of this genus and, I think, this species, which was taken at the foot of the hills to the north-west of Cachar. As a general rule, they keep much to the higher trees, small saplings, &c., in their quest for food ; but they do sometimes come down to low bushes, even quite close to the ground, ‘They are nearly always to be seen in my compound any time from November up to the end of March, or even later, clambering about some tall shrubs which are covered during these months with clusters of red flowers—the attraction for numerous insects of all kinds and
also for many other birds, besides those of this species. Unfortunately, this 2
10 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCTETY, Vol. VII,
bird is most dreadfully pugnacious and quarrelsome, and whilst feeding on these bushes will allow no other bird to come near. I found out this trait very soon after I first became acquainted with the bird. I was engaged in watching a small party of Flower-peckers (Dicceum olivacewm) feeding on a babul tree, when a green bulbul appeared on the scene and prompily commenced chasing the unoffending small birds who, one by one, were forced to take shelter in a densely foliaged tree close by. The same day a King-crow, a bird usually so bumptious and aggressive, was badly hustled and punished by a pair of C.aurifrons. This occurred some time between the 25th November and the 5th December, so could not well have been the result of any grievance which the bulbuls had against the shrike on nesting grounds. They do not mind what kind of bird they bully, and if they can get nothing else to quarrel with, will fight amongst themselves. ‘Twice have I picked up birds mortally wounded in these fights. Once, as I was walking to Cutcherry, I noticed two of these birds fighting in a cotton tree, and whilst I watched, one fell to the ground dead. Another time I was out for a stroll with a planterand his nephew, when, just in front, two of these birds fluttered fighting to the ground. One of my companions at once rushed forward towards the birds, whereupon one flew away, but the other, after a few convulsive movements, lay dead. On yet a third occasion, one of my servants succeeded in catching two males by rushing forward. and throwing his pwygree over them as they struggled in some grass, too engrossed in their quarrel to notice his approach. On this occasion neither bird was very badly wounded, though both of them showed signs of blood on the shoulders and heads.
The only bird of its own size with which it does not care to compete is its first cousin C. hardwichii, and rather than fight with this bird, it will even leave a choice feeding-ground.
During the cold weather it assembles in fairly large flocks, generally num- bering nearly a dozen individuals, though sometimes only three or four, and very rarely they may be seen alone or in pairs. The separate members of the flock are very independent, and they often wander some distance from one another ; but, if driven away, they make off in the same direction, and keep up an. intermittent conversation between themselves.
They seem to be almost entirely insectivorous, and of the birds which I have examined, none contained seeds or other vegetable food in their stomachs, with two exceptions.
These two had in them numerous small black seeds which had been taken from the pods of a bean-like climbing plant, and when I carefully examined the plant, I found that many of these pods, which had burst, were crowded with
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 11
tiny blue beetles, so it is possible that the seeds may merely have been swallowed by the birds, either by mistake for, or together with, the insects,
I was once watching some Bronzed Drongo-shrikes catching white ants, when my attention was attracted by some other birds joining in the pursuit. At first I could not make out what they were, but one of them uttered a note which I recognised as being that of the genus Chloropsis, and on shooting the bird which uttered it, I found it belonged to this species. They were making swoops into the air from the top of a lofty tree, and before returning to their perch, they seemed to seize two and even three ants, whereas all the other bulbuls I have seen catching insects on the wing invariably perched after making one attempt to capture, whether successful or not. I noticed also that though the white ants were rising to our right and the birds were on our left, yet they appeared to see and give chase to insects which had disappeared far beyond the range of sight, either of myself or the more sharp-sighted Naga who accompanied me.
The ordinary cry of this bird is, as many observers have already remarked, a low sweet rippling note, very like the softened cry of a Drongo-shrike. Ithas, however, a2 most wonderful range of notes, some like those of Molpastes and. Otocompsa, and others harsh, loud and jarring ; avery common sound, uttered more especially during the breeding season, is just like the plaintive little chirp of a very young chicken which has lost the hen. This note, like most, seems to be common to the whole genus.
The song is very pretty, but short and rather interrupted, and very inferior to that of the next bird, though perhaps rather louder.
The flight is fairly quick and strong, and consists of long rises and dips alternately. ‘They sometimes hover in front of a flower, exactly in the same way as many of the sun-birds do, and the movements of their wings when thus: engaged are incredibly rapid.
All the birds of this genus have a habit of spreading their tails whilst feeding, very much in the manner of Siphia, or, still more, like Myiophoneustemminckit,
Tt is a very early rooster, retiring directly the sun sets, sometimes even before this, and always before it becomes in the least dark.
Tt does not always roost on high trees, and Iam inclined to think that, more often than not, it prefers high, thick bushes to any other place.
I have twice disturbed it from patches of sun-grass when coming home at dusk, and I have known it stay during the night in a dense orange-tree in my compound. It is, like the other members of the genus, a great mimic, and when in captivity, soon learns to imitate sounds made near it,
12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
CHLOROPSIS HARDWICEII. THE ORANGH-BELLIED CHLOROPSIS.
Phyllornis hardwickii, Jerdon’s “B. of 1,” Vol. IL, p. 100; Hume’s Cat., No. 460 ; Chloropsis hardwickii, Oates’ ““ B. of B. B.,” Vol. I., p. 206 ; éd., “ Fauna of B. L., Birds,” Vol. I, p. 236.
Description.— Male.—Whole upper plumage, tertiaries and greater coverts next the back rather bright green; the forehead, above the eye, down the neck tinged strongly with yellow, lores, the ear-coverts and behind them on the _ sides of the neck, dead black ; chin, throat and upper breast black, velvety im appearance, and strongly glossed with deep purply-blue, moustachial streak bright dark ultramarine. Tail above purply-blue, the inner webs dusky black ; lesser wing-coverts verdigris-blue ; other coverts black, edged purple ; primaries the same, secondaries black on the inner and green on the outer webs ; flanks ereen ; remainder of lower plumage bright deep orange.
Female.—A moustachial streak bright pale cobalt; lesser wing-coveris the same as in the male; primaries and secondaries brown, the former very narrowly, the latter broadly, edged green ; remainder of wings and whole upper plumage green ; flanks and sides of the abdomen and breast green; centre of lower breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts orange.
Young birds in their first plumage are wholly green, there being only a faint indication ef the blue on the lesser wing-coverts.
First a cobalt moustachial streak appears, then the orange belly, &c., im patches, together with patches of black on the breast. As the black develops, the lesser wing-coverts assume their proper colour, and the moustachial streak deepens into the ultramarine blue of the adult, and, finally, the yellow on the head appears in the autumn of the second year, with the bright deep tints on the wing and tail.
Bill black ; irides vary considerably; in some they are almost a bright red- brown, in others dull and almost black, and they range between these extremes; lees, plumbeous-blue, brightest and clearest in the young, and dull and dark in old birds.
Length 7°3” to 7°6”; tail °8” to 8:1”; wing 3°7” to 3:95”; tarsus “71”; bill at front °67” and from gape *98".
The female seems to be but little smaller than the male, and I have measured none under 7°25” and from that up to 7°5”, the wing varying from 3°6” to 3°75".
Nipiricatron.—There is practically no difference between the nests of this bird and those of C. aurifrons, though two were rather deeper than any I have seen of that bird, one measuring 1°8” and the other 2°05” in depth. They build in just the same sort of places, but, generally, rather higher, and I have seen no nest under about 25 fect from the ground, ;
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 13
The few eggs I have seen could not possibly be distinguished from those of the last bird. One clutch of two is of the blotched type, and five are of the other. In my remarks on this bird in the Asian, by mistake I wrote “ the blotched eggs number four in every five taken” it should have been number only two to five of the other kind taken. Seven eggs average 91” x °67”; in length they vary between *89” and 1:05”, and in breadth between *56” and ‘7”, The largest egg is very much larger than any of the others, measuring 1:05” >¢ °7” whereas the next largest is only just °95” % °67”,
I have never seen this bird in as large flocks as those in which C. aurifrons assembles, Asa rule, nob more than five or six are seen together, and often they are found in pairs. They do not, either, descend as low as C. aurifrons does. I have never heard of their being found quite in the plains, and only once or twice have I met with them anywhere below some 600 feet. Although they are very nearly entirely insectivorous, they are not altogether so, and in a caged state accustom themselves to a wholly vegetable diet. I have seen them two or three times, when wild, eating berries, and one I once shot in my compound had its stomach full of oranges about the size of a No. 4 shot.
This bird and its mate lived in my compound, and did a good deal of damage to the one orange tree they particularly fancied. At first I flattered myself that they were destroying the red ants which infested the tree, but I soon discovered my mistake and did my best to drive them away, finally having to shoot one, that being the only way of ridding myself of their company. In captivity they seem to thrive on plantains and similar food, though they are grateful for any insects which may be offered to them, and more especially for any grasshoppers. A great friend of mine in Silchar had one of these birds in a cage, which was a most charming pet. It soon got to know that certain people gave it grass- hoppers or other dainties, and would become most excited whenever they came into the verandah, coming to the side of its cage and calling loudly to attract their attention. When J last saw it, it was beginning to sing, but had not come to its full powers, though it possessed, even then, a very sweet and musical littlesong. This bird had a habit of turning complete somersaults from off the top perch of its cage on to one of the lower ones, and this it would do some half-dozen, or even more, times in rapid succession. ‘This trick, however, is one which is common to the species—and, I believe, to the genus— and. in a wild state they may occassionally be seen indulging in these acrobatic feats. In turning these somersaults, the bird does not appear to apen its wing in the least ; it suddenly turns round on its perch, and drops, with closed wings, on to the place it desires to reach, either seizing something edible as it first turns round, or else directly after arriving on the lower twig. _
14 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Voi, VIII.
It is not nearly so quarrelsome a bird as its cousin already described, but it is quite as bold and plucky, and seems to be even a more finished fighter, for, as I have mentioned before, C. aurifrons does not care about attacking this bird, and gets the worst of it when he does.
The song is the fullest and most prolonged, as well as by far the sweetest, of any bird of this genus, and it shares with the other members of it the wide variety of notes and wonderful power of mimicry.
T have one female of this bird, which, however, is not an adult, which measures as follows :—
Length °7”; tail 2°8”; wing 3°5”,
This is the bird whose measurements I gave in the Asian; but now, with my greater experience of the species, I think that these figures are abnormally small, or that the bird would have become slightly larger with increased age.
CHLOROPSIS CHLOROCEPHALA. Tuer Burmese CHLOROPSIS.
Phyllornis chlorocephala, Hume’s Cat., No. 463, bis. 3 Chioropsis chlorocephala, Oates’ “ B. of B. B.,” Vol. 1., p. 208 ; ¢d., “ Fauna of B. L., Birds,” Vol. I, p. 237.
Desoriprion.—Lores, feathers under and in front of the eye, cheeks, chin and throat, black ; forehead and a broad band from eye to eye passing round and encircling the throat pale yellowish-green ; front of the crown above the forehead and a broad streak passing over the eyes and ear-coverts pale green ; a very short moustachial streak cobalt ; crown of the head and nape goiden- green; back, rump, upper tail-coverts and scapulars deep green ; tail blue ; primaries and their coverts black, edged with blue; secondaries black on the inner, blue on the outer webs, and edged with green; tertiaries and inner- coverts green tinged with blue; lesser coverts glistening smalt-blue; medium and greater-coverts green, tinged with blue at the base, under plumage bright green, tinged with yellow on the breast (Oates).
I have only seen one male of this species, and that in such bad condition that I give Oates’ description.
' The female has no black on the head, these parts being bluish-green; the moustachial streak is paler and less glistening, and the plumage generally is
duller. Length °7"; tail 27”; wing 3°3”; tarsus "75"; bill from gape *9” (Oates). T have only seen a single pair of these birds in North Cachar. They were shot at Gunjong, in January, 1891, feeding on a very high cotton tree. I know of
nothing in their habits differing from those of the other members of the genus.
THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 15
The male several times uttered a cry exactly like one of the lower notes of the large Racket-tailed Drongo-shrike, and for some moments I thought that it was one of these birds calling, nor did I find out my mistake, until I shot the bird which uttered it and saw that there were no others in the tree.
CHLOROPSIS JERDONI.
JERDON 'S CHLOROPSIS.
Phyllornis jerdoni, Jerdon’s “ B. of I.,” Vol. IL., p. 97 ; Hume’s Cat., No. 463 ; Chloropsis jerdoni, Oates’ “ Fauna of B. I., Birds,” Wolk Wy p. 238); zd., Hume's “ Nests and Hegs,” Vol. I., p. loo (2nd Hd.).
Description.— Hale.—Whole visible plumage, with the exceptions noted below, bright grass-green, paler below and brightest on the head, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; shoulder-patch, formed by the lesser wing-coverts, bright smalt-blue, moustachial streak bright purplish-blue or ultramarine, chin and throat, lores, and over the moustache, black surrounded by yellowish, com- mencing from the forehead and continuing through the eyes downwards.
The female has no black, and the moustachial streak is paler and inclined to greenish-blue.
The young are wholly green.
Nipirication.—If I confine my notes on this subject to those nests taken in North Cachar, I can give practically no information beyond what is already known, for, most undoubtedly, the bird is not an inhabitant of these hills, and the few which have been seen are only the progeny of tame birds let loose.
As far as I can ascertain, the original birds, some three or four, were brought up to Gunjong by some sepoys in, or about, the year 1883, and released when the sepoys left the stockade. The first bird I ever saw was shot by Mr. Hughes, of the Frontier Police, at Gunjong, and two more birds were obtained by me that same year.
In 1886 I found a nest containing three eggs, and this is the only one I have actually taken in North Cachar itself. It was just like those described as belonging to C. aurifrons, and was built in a small tree quite close to the cotton tree, on which the first bird was shot.
The whole of my eggs, including the three found in Gunjong, average *91” X60", but I have only had a very small series pass through my hands, and out of this series two pairs were abnormally large, the four eggs measuring between *1” and 1:06” in length and ‘68” and °7” in. breadth,
Deducting these four eggs, the remaining nine average only °86” x °58” even narrower than the dimensions given by Oates (vide “Nests and Eggs”).
16 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, VIIT.
A pair of eggs which I took in Nuddea has not been included in these measurements.
Tn captivity this species also seems to be fed by natives principally on a vegetable diet, and it appears to thrive on this; but I have noticed—it may be only fancy—that birds fed thus are duller in colour than those fed on a meat or insect diet. Such is certainly the case with O. hardwickii, the blue parts beng duller and the green the same, and, moreover, tinged with blue, much as is the case with caged green magpies (Cissa sinensis). The first bird of this species I ever saw in captivity belonged to one of my servants, and I have never seen one as tame since. As it was allowed to fly about without restraint, it naturally gave free vent to its appetite for insects, and thus retained its proper coloration ; but at the same time it by no means despised plantains, and when shut up, as it sometimes was, ate them freely, I was told by the servants that this bird caught and devoured wasps and hees, but could get none at the time to test the truth of the assertion, and shortly afterwards the bird died a violent death.
This habit of catching wasps may have been copied from a tame Racket-tailed Drongo (Dissemurus yaradiseus) which shared with it its semi-imprisonment. It was remarkably noticeable how the small bulbul “bossed” its much larger companion who, had he wished, could have easily killed him, As a rule, they got on very well together, but the bulbul was very jealous and resented any attention being shown to the shrike.
I am much afraid that this bird, like I/yiophoneus temminckit, has died out, for, since 1890, I have not seen a single bird, of course, amongst the many C. aurifrons that I am constantly seeing, it is quite possible that I may over- look one or two birds of this species, and it is to be hoped that such may be the case.
17
LES FORMICIDES DE L’EMPIRE DES INDES ET DE CHY LAN.
Par Auguste Fort, Professeur 4 1’ Université de Ziirich. Part III. gme Genre Potyracais, Shuck. Tableau des ouvrieres des espéces de la faune de V Empire des Indes et de Ceylan.
1. Yeux proéminents, perpendiculairement tronqués 4 leur face inférieure- postérieure (comme la moitié d’un ceil), Hemioprica (Roger)... 2 Yeux arrondis, de forme ordinaire ...... jandocacone Snap Dbi Se goosonnoaostononebe 4. Une fente verticale, profonde, étroite et sinueuse entre le mégonotum et le métanotum. Thorax convexe, sans épines, non bordé. Glabre. Hcaille bidentée ..... secesensceressescsesecsecsesessresls SCISSA (Roger). Thorax sans fente, ni échancrure, convexe, avec deux longues épines au pronotum. Poilues. Thorax bordé. Leaille bispineuse ...0......03 Luisante, faiblement chagrinée. Pubescence tres éparse, - Métanotum AMET C MI OLUOMstevoseeceeenopepasecitccieasaslsnn ne s-eP, ACULEATA (Mayr). Subopaque ou opaque; rugueuse-striée; abdomen densément coriacé- ponctué. Une pubescence jaundtre formant toison, Métanotum bidenté, bordé entre ses deux faces. i: 5 Mill.......c.sccccsees panini P. PUBESCENS (Mayr). Angles supérieurs, latéraux de l’écaille prolongés en lobe large, bispineux, aliforme. L’épine anterieure est courte, dentiforme, var : ALATISQUAMIS, nov. var. 4, Thorax fortement bordé latéralement dans toute sa longueur; ses cdtés
nN)
(3)
VETUlCAylUNewecis cian ee Geen caweeeiciee eeose POSCHHSHOTETESOSFOSSSEESFEOREOOSED eeeve000 ai) Thorax non bordé, ou bien le métanotum seul est distinctement bordé ; pronotum nullement Hordé ....c..sccccscescescneccsececnes Konponn doneenlia
5. Thorax armé de quatre larges épines; celles du pronotum sont les plus courtes. L’écaille a deux longues épines qui embrassent l’abdomen et deux dents entre deux. Abdomen bordé devant et 4 ses angles antérieurs. Corps court et large. Li: 4°5 a 5°3 Mill.......... caveeces
P. JERDONII (Forel). Thorax n’a que deux épines ou n’en a pas........ Saesericsendoad secsceeseeeesG
6. Pas d’épines au pronotum, qui n’a que deux angles oe ou moins arrondis
ou deux dents....... “DoDONDeEDE dos BECOADD ODE cares swsetiesesiciace arses eit | Deux épines aigties au pronotum. Pasd’épines aumétanotum, tout au plus
deux petites dents et en général une aréte transyersale entre elles...12 3
18 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
7. Hcaille avec une épine impaire ou 1M COne aVl MINEU rereeesereeseresceerened Toutes les dents ou épines de Pécaille sont paires..esesercersereccsoeseesee Ll 8. Hcaille nodiforme, avec un cone médian et deux angles latéraux. Prono- tum avec deux angles. Le métanotum a deux cornes deprimées, courbées en dedans, formant ensemble un croissant (quart de lume) P. SELENE (Emery) Heaille avec une longue Epine MEdIANE ...sceocscescseccserccncscecescsceverD 9. Heaille squamiforme, quoique, épaisse, trispmeuse. Les faces antérieure et postérieure de ’épine médiane sont la simple continuation des faces antérieure et postérieure de l’écaille. Tete carrée, & peine plus longue que large, & peine plus large derri¢re que devant. Métanotum avec deux fortes dents obtuses et verticales. Arétes frontales aussi rapprochées derriére que devant, non divergentes. Dents de I’épistome plus écartées que chez les P. frauenfeldi et thrinax*, i: 6 Mill. D’tn jaune TOUSSAtTe ........sceecceseeroeceeseeL, SAIGONENSIS (Forel). Ecaille nodiforme, aussi épaisse que large, ou peu s’en faut, avec une surface supérieure convexe, au milieu de laquelle l’épine médiane est implantée. Tete pluslongue que large et bien plus large derriére que devant...10 10. L: 8895 Mul. Arétes frontales comme chez la P. saigonensis. 'Téte et thorax mats, densément réticulés-ponctués, sans rides. Dents du métanotum aussi courtes ou plus courtes que celles du pronotum. Dents latérales de Vécaille longues et pointues. Noire ; extrémité des funicules et des tarses d’un jaune brun...P. FRAUENFELDI (Mayr). L: Environ 8 Mill. Noire, avec le front, l’épistome les mandibules, Vextrémité des funicules et celle des tarses d’un brun roussatre. Tete et thorax ridés. Métanotum avec deux épines trés courtes, Hcaille avec deux courtes épines latérales (WVaprés Smith) ....-.secsecccsees P. TEXTOR (Smith). I.; 4455 Mill, Arétes frontales divergeant en arri¢re ot elles sont bien plus écartées que devant. 'Téte et thorax réticulés et longitudi- nalement ridés, mats ou subopaques, épines métanotales assez longues, subyerticales. D’un brun plus on moins chatain ou roussatre ...... P. THRINAX (Roger). L: 5455 Mill. D’un brun roussitre. Ecaille avec deux dents
ou spinules latérales pointues.........race : P. THRINAX id. sp.
*La P. thrinar race: javana (Mayr) de Java alécaille 4 peu pres conformée comme la P. saigonensis, mais les caractéres de la téte sont comme chez la P. thrinaz. + C’est avec doute que je place cette espéce sous le chiffre 10, car je ne l’ai pas vue.
Smith et Mayr ne disent pas si l’écaille est nodiforme et ne parlent pas de la forme de la téte, les arétes frontales, &c.
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN,. 19
L: 445 Mill. D’un brun chatain, Ecaille au moins aussi épaisse,
sinon plus épaisse que large......... var: P, LANCEARIUS 0, var,
[L: 55 Mill. Ecaille plus mince, trispineuse, (épines subégales).
Dents du pronotum plus fortes. Java.,race : P. JAVANA(Mayr).]
11. Bord supérieur de I’écaille faiblement convexe, portant au milieu deux dents pointues et a ses angles latéranx deux épines assez longues, droites, dirigées en haut et en dehors. Téte et thorax fortement ridés en long, et réticulés-ponctués, L: 6447 Mill...... SHBoRonAeE
P, HALIDAYI (Emery).
Bord supérieur de Vécaille fort convexe, armé de deux longues épines medianes trés rapprochées l'une de J’autre et a peu pres verticales.
Les deux épines latérales sont situées plus bas que chez Vhalidayi et
sont en général un peu plus courtes que les médianes. Dents du méta- notum plus aplaties et plus horizontales. Téte et thorax réticulés- ponctués, avec de fines rides longitudinales moins apparentes. L :
5 2 7:3 Mill.......00.0 ....P, CLYPEATA (Mayr) [—1npica (Mayr). ] ,L: 75 Mill. Téte et thorax régulierement et tres distinctement ridés longitudinalement............race : P. RASTRATA (Hmery).
Ecaille quadridentée, Dents du métanotum verticales. Subopaque, fine- ment pubescente (pruineuse). Yeux sphériques. Abdomen réticulé- ponctué, Tete et thorax ridés-ponctués. Noire, L: 5 Mill. (Vapres Roger) .ccccccccssscoessseesseeeeeee-b, PUNCTILLATA (Roger).
12. Téte plus large derriére que devant. Robuste. Grossierement striée- ridée, Hcaille avec quatre épines courtes, subégales. Noire. Poilue. Eparsément pubescente. Arétes frontales divergentes. Thorax a bord biincisé. L: 9 4 10 Mill......... »»6P, STRIATO-RUGOSA (Mayr).
Ecaille comme chez la précédente. L: 5546 Mill. Pruineuse. Ridée- ponctuée, Une pubescence grisdtre sur le corps, jaunatre sur abdo- men. Pilosité dressée presque nulle. Thorax fort convexe .o.........-
P. CONVEXA (Roger).
Ecaille armée en haut de deux longues épines verticales ou subverticales, de coté de deux dents ou petites épines beaucoup plus courtes. Téte aussi large ou plus large devant que derricre .eersseeeereersecoeees eeeld
13. Téte fortement rétrécie en arricre, 4 partir des yeux, sans autre bord postérieur que V’articulation occipitale. La distance V’un ceil 4 langle postérieur de la téte est aussi grande que celle d'un ceil 4 Pautre. Opaque, réticulée-ponctuée; thorax et tebe en outre striés, Noire. Pilosité noiratre, Faiblement pubescente. Thorax étroit, allongé, a peine plus large devant que derritre. L. 9 & 10 Mill.........s00 wen
P. srRiaTa (Mayr).
20 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Téte pas ou a peine rétrécie derriere les yeux, avec un bord particulier, distinct, en avant de l’articulation occipitale. Yeux bien plus éloignés l'un de l’autre que des angles postérieurs de la téte. Plus robuste...14
14. Une pubescence plus ou moins grisatre, dorée ou argentée, formant un duvet trés abondant et apparent, qui cache la sculpture, au moins BUH AOC OMICTIY certs enatsiretelesuelsieieecess ce ves cecee since aeeivmce=tala vce cd
Une pubescence courte, espacée, ne cachant pas la sculpture et ne formant
pas de duvet apparent. 'Téte et thorax stries. Noire ......sescceec0016
15. Arétes frontales trés rapprochées l'une de l’autre, 4 peine distantes comme 4 ou 4 de leur longueur. Pronotum aussi large derriére que devant.
Epines latérales de Vécaille trés courtes et bimucronées. Pilosité
éparse. Pubescence plutot argentée ou faiblement dorée. Taille un
peu moins robuste que chez la P. mayri. 1: 8 & 9 Mill ............008
. P. PROXIMA (Roger).
Arétes frontales distantes de la moitié de leur longueur environs. Prono- tum un peu élargi devant. Taille robuste et courte. Pubescence grise- dorée, parfois plusgris 4tre ou un peu argentée. L:7°5 49 Mill...
P. MAYRI (Roger).
Pilosité abondante sur le corps et sur les pattes. Pubescence
dense et d’un gris doré. Arétes frontales tres distantes...race : P. MAYRI, id. sp.
Pubescence grise et peu dense sur l’abdomen...var: PAUPERATA (Emery).
Pilosité dressée trés éparse partout. Abdomen avec une pubes- cence grise ne formant qu’un assez faible duvet. Abdomen
brun. Arétes frontales plus rapprochées que chez le type
race : P, INTERMEDIA (Forel),
Stature trapue et pubescence dorée dense de la P. mayri, i. sp. Arétes frontales presque aussi rapprochées que chez la P. prozima. Pilosité tres éparse, comme chez la P, intermedia...
var : PROXIMO-MAYRI, n. var.
16. Epines médianes de l’écaille courbées en arriére pres de leur extréemité et plus rapprochées I’une de l’autre 4 leurs bases que des épines latér- ales. Pas de pilosité dressée, sauf quelques poils roussatres au deux extrémités du corps. Pubescence jaunatre tres courte, formant sur Vabdomen un trés faible duvet pruineux. Abdomen subopaque, trés finement réticulé. L: 849 Mill. Pas de dent médiane entre les épines supérieures de l’écaille .....+.sseeeseeeeeeeek. YERBURYI, 0. Sp. Epines médianes de V’écaille droites, bien plus éloignées Pune de lautre que des épines latérales. Pilosité dressée abondante sur le corps, les pattes et les antennes. Abdomen mat, ridé-ponctué ou strié. Pubescence grise, plus éparse que chez la précédente. Une dent médiane entre les épines supérieures de Vécaille. L:9 4 12 Mill. P. SUMATRENSIS (Smith).
Ie
18,
19,
20.
21.
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 21
Epines supérieures de Vécaille de longueur médiocre ; dent médiane forte, spiniforme. Métanotum sans dents distinctes. Abdomen ridéponctué ............race : P. SUMATRENSIS, id. sp. Hpines supérieures de I’écaille longues ; dent médiane tres faible et obtuse, Métanotum avec deux fortes dents verticales. Abdomen strié ..,.........02. wecwoerace : P, HAMULATA (Hmery). Luisantes, lisses ou faiblement chagrinées. Thorax sans épines ou avec deux dents ou épines plus ou moins caduques, gréles des leur base, au métanotum seulement. Pas de pubescence.......cscccesoeeeeo-e 18, Sculpture accentuée. Mates ou subopaques (sauf chez la P. laevigata). "Thorax EPUMCUX sevseavercccreeres sceccrccercescesscceceoerssseescssscooe lds Pronotum avec deux angles antérieurs aigus, dentiformes. lcaille a peine quadridentée. Métanotum inerme. Noire; pattes rougeatres, sauf les tarses. L: 5°5 & 6°2, Mill.......00..P. LAVISSIMA (Smith), Abdomen et pattes d’un roux jaundtre. Antennes et devant de Habe Le OUSSA LES idacceepacescesereteconices var : DICHROUS (Forel). Pronotum avec ses angles antérieurs arrondis. Hcaille quadrispimeuse (épines latérales courtes, épines médianes rapprochées). Noire ; pattes brunatres ou rougedtres. L:5 a 6. Mill...P. RASTELLATA (Latreille). Métanotum absolument inerme...... race : P. RASTELLATA, id. sp. Metanotum armé de deux épines gréles, plus ou moins caduques, aussi étroites 4 leur base que vers leur extrémité ...... coceccnodoac race: P. LAVIOR (Roger), Métanotum armé seulement de deux petites dents... var : DEBILIS (Emery), Mésonotum armé de deux fortes épines, recourbées en arricre ...00.00.20 Micsonoium imerme, Heaille bispinetise <......cuesescscscececcssccecnsenso22 Métanotum armé de deux fortes dents. Epines du pronotum fortement courbées en dehors. LHcaille surmontée d’un pilier d’ou partent deux longues épines médianes, d’abord verticales, paralléles et contigues, puis divergentes et recourbées en dehors en cornes de chamois & leur sommet. Thorax, sauf lesépines, base de l’écaille, devant du premier segment abdominal d’un roux foncé ; le reste noiratre. Pubescence peu dense. Li: 849 Mill .........ccvceeeeevesP, BELLICOSA (Smith), Métanotum armé de deux tubercules dentiformes plus ou moins obtus, souvent peu distincts. Epines du pronotum longues, recourbées 4 la fois en dehors et en arriére. Taille plus grande ..........0. o0-.-00-21 Kcaille comme chez la P. Gellicosa. D’un roux vif. Téte, antennes, tibias, tarses, articulations, extrémité des épines et moitié postérieur de Vabdomen noiratres. Pubescence longue, abondante, jaunatre Li: 9°5 & 10 Mill .....e00s..scceeeeseeseceeereeeeeb, BIHAMATA (Drury). Les épines de l’écaille divergent dés le sommet du pilier d’ot elles partent, comme les branches d’un Y. Abdomen irés large. Tubercules
22. JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII,
du métanotum presque nuls. Enticrement noire, avec la base
de Técaille, et parfois une partie du thorax, d’un roux brunatre. Pubescence plus grisatre que chez la P. bihamata. Li: 10411
IMG 2. seencacecissnconssacenssacceessccomcssecannrascnks YPSILON (Hmery).
22. Lisse et Iuisante. Noire. Angles antérieurs du thorax aigus. Métano- tum avec deux longues épines divergentes, dirigées en arriére, ce qui
la distingue de la P. levior. Cuisses et hanches ferrugineuses.
Heaille avec deux longues épines embrassant Vabdomen. L: 5 4 6
Mill (apres Smith) ......000 serersecereseeveees- bP, LAVIGATA (Smith).
Corps, en partie du moins, avec une sculpture bien distincte, mat ou SUDOPAGUC Jsccerscnvecscroevvarcaveccceeessseansors+s:,seessecccssccacasd4oe
23. Pronotum avec deux angles antérieurs aigus, subdentés. Deux épines au métanotum. Lcaille avec deux épines dirigées en arriére et embrassant abdomen. Sutures du thorax assez nettes. Subopaque ;
téte et thorax finement réticulés-ponctués. Abdomen réticulé.
Pilosité dressée nulle. Pubescence extrémement courte et tres
éparse. Noire, avec un treflet métallique bleuatre foncé, surtout apparent au métathorax. Funicules et pattes, sauf les métatarses,
testacés, L: 4447 Mill.........P. HIPPOMANES (Smith). Race : CEYLONENSIS™ (C. Emery).
Pronotum armé de deux EpiMes .....ccccseerscseccesencsescascecsonseeses seedy
24, Suture méso-métanotale distincte. caille simplement bispineuse. Pilosité dressée 4 peu pres nulle. Métanotum ordinairement bordé...25
Suture méso-métanotale indistincte ou nulle. Souvent deux dents entre
les épines de l’écaille. Métanotum nullement bordé ..........0....31
25. D’un noir verdatre bronzé. Métanotum bordé. Beaucoup plus gréle que la P. venus. Téte et thorax densément réticulés-ponctués; les
points ou réticulations fines sont plus ou moins disposés par groupes
de 5 ou 6, séparés les uns des autres par une maille réticulaire un peu
plus élevée, souvent peu distincte. Abdomen subopaque, assez
luisant, assez faiblement et trés finement ponctué-ridé transyersale-
ment. Tibias et scapes comprimés. L: 7 Mill...P. a:DIPUS, n. sp.
D’un noir brundtre mat; uniformément eb densément réticulées-ponc- tuées. Abdomen parfois d’un brun roussatre, Tibias eb scapes comprimes, ces derniers du moins vers l’extrémité ......seeeseeese-27
D’un bleu foncé, métallique en tout ou en partie. Deux longues épimes
au pronotum. Subopaques; abdomen Iluisant, finement chagrine.
* Je dois a mon ami M. C. Hmery la*connaissance des caractéres qui distinguent cette race de Vhippomanes id. sp. C’est done sous son nom et avec sa signature que je publie la diagnose de ce tableau.—A. Forel.
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN, 23
Face basale du métanotum subbordée. Epistome échancrée au milieude
son bord antérieur. Scapes, cuisses, ef tibias, comprimés. Dépourvues
de pilosité dressée eb de pubescence, Li: 8 a 9 Mill. ...............26
26. Téte rétrécie fortement derriere les yeux. Epines du métanotum plus courtes que celles du pronotum, paralleles, dressées, Thorax étroit, alloneé, finement rugueux transversalement, nullement convexe dessus. Ecaille avec deux longues épines, trés écartées et trés diver- gentes, courbées en arricre. Téte, prothorax et méso-thorax noirs...
P, CHALYBEA (Smith),
Téte non rétrécie derriére les yeux. Epines du métanotum extremement fortes et extremement longues, longues comme plus de deux fois Vintervalle de leurs bases, tres fortement divergentes, beaucoup plus longues que les épines pronotales, dirigées en arriére et en haut. Thorax plus robuste que chez la P. chalybea. Pronotum et méso- notum un peu convexes. Hcaille comme chez la P. chalybea. 'Téte
et thorax réticulés-ponctués ou réticulés, et subopaques ou faiblement luisants, sauf la face basale du métanotum qui est trés luisante et faiblement chagrinée: En outre une ponctuation éparse, assez effacée. D’un bleu métallique foncé, uniforme. Pattes et antennes Cun noir bleuatre so.seorsseseeeecesocseserscersceeseseel. VENUS, I. SP.
27. ‘Tete considerablement rétrécie par lignes convergentes, presque droites, derriére les yeux, sans bord postérieur distinct de Varticulation occipi- tale; Vextrémité postérieure de la téte est aussi étroite que larticu- lation occipitale. Antennes, pattes, et palpes tres longs et trés ‘gréles, Les palpes et les scapes dépassent en arri¢re la suture pro- mésonotale. Corps tres étroit. Chaque article du funicule renflé &
son extrémité. Epines métanotales paralléles, de la longueur des épines pronotales et des épines de Técaille; ces derniéres, assez dressées et courbées en arriére. Métanotum nonbordé, Tout le corps mat, densément réticulé-ponctué et glabre ou peu s’en faut. L: 7. ET, coscos ccaccspeseebeondadeacesbaated spsgcéccococennd-eoles alROMiNIMIENL, 42, (fm, Tete médiocrement rétrécie par lignes, plus ou moins convexes, derriére les yeux, avec un bord postérieur plus ou moins distinct, ou indistinct, mais toujours plus long que articulation occipitale 4 gon ex- trémité postcrieure. Palpes et scapes n’atteignant ou ne dépassant pas
la suture pro-mésonotale. Métanotum bordé ou au moins subbordé..28
28. Dront et aretes frontales élevés, proéminents. Pas de dent sous l’extrémité antérieure du 1° segment abdominal, Pubescence extraordinairement courte et diluée, presque nulle. .Cdtés de la téte faiblement convexes entre Poeil et le bord postérieur, Corps relativement robuste ou médiocrement gréle, Abdomen souvent d’un brun roussitre .....29
DA JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII,
Front eb arétes frontales peu élevés, peu proéminents. Une dent lamelli- forme sous V’extrémité antérieure du 1° segment abdominal. Une pubescence grisitre, fort distincte, qui rend l’abdomen un peu pruineux, sans former de duvet. Cotés de la téte derriere les yeux plus fortement convexes que chez 28. Corps gréle, étroit, mais lesantennes NE SONL Pas LONGUES ..--eeeeecaveeevenrcecesccvscescrsescossoreceseseceees DO
29, caille épaisse mais non cubique, surmontée de deux fortes et longues épines divergentes, dirigées en haut, en arricre et en dehors, médio- crement courbées en arriére, plus longues que les épines du métanotum. Ces derniéres divergentes, légerement courbées en dehors, pas plus longues que celles du pronotum; leur bord antérieur ne se continue pas isa base en une arcte bordant la face basale du métanotum. Cette derniére plane, faiblement subbordée. ‘Tibias postérieurs et médians armés 4 leur bord interne de deux ou trois petits piquants tres courts et trés obliques. Stature relativement robuste, presque comme P. armata. UL: 10 Mill..........seseceoeeeek, ACHILLES, 0, SD.
Heaille cubique, avec un angle plus ou moins droit entre sa face antérieure et sa face supérieure qui s’éleve dans sa moitié postérieure en bourre- let, d’ot partent deux épines assez longues, dirigées en arriére, en dehors et un peu en haut, assez fortement courbées en arriére. Face basale du métanotum concave, en gouttiére longitudinale, bordée d’une aréte qui se continue directement dans le bord antérieur des épines. Ces dernicres trés longues, droites, & peine divergentes, plus longues que celles du pronotum et de V’écaille. Tibias sans trace de piquants, Stature moins robuste. L : 8 & 9 Mill sessecsesesssesceeees
P. ABDOMINALS (Smith) ; [= PHYLLOPHILA (Smith). |
30. Vertex bas, faiblement convexe, de méme que le front. Tibias armés de piquants distincts 4 leur bord interne. Neeud du pédicule plus long que large, avec les stigmates fort proéminents, Face basale du métanotum bordée et concave de droite a gauche. Hpines du métanotum et de l’écaille comme chez la P. abdominalis, mais les premiéres encore plus longues, extrémement longues, pointues et plus divergentes. Articles 1 4 4 du funicule trés distinctement €paissis A leur extrémité, Téte 4 eine rétrécie derriére les yeux. Pronotum un peu concave entre les dx épines, Li: 7°8 Mill........sceceeees
-P, murat (Smith) ? race: AJAX. n. st.
Vertex plus fortement convexe. ‘Tete fort distinctement rétrécie derriére les yeux. ‘Tibias sans trace de piquants. Noeud du pédicule un peu plus large que long, armé derriére de deux épines fort courtes, dirigées presque horizontalement en arri¢re et en dehors, courbées
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 25
de fagon & embrasser un peu l’abdomen. Métanotum comme chez Vespéce précédente, mais les arétes qui bordent la face basale sont plus faibles et les épines un peu plus courtes et plus divergentes, Articles 1 & 4 du funicule & peine épaissis a@ leur extrémité, Pronotum faiblement convexe entre les deux épines. Tres voisine de Vespéce précédente, mais L:: 5°5 Mill, et pubescence un peu plus HC CCMUICCIMenaeeeebanis +s ecinidy- succes cevacecses<k BINGTAMEI. TN. Sp: 31. Pédicule comme chez la P. ypsilon, c. a, d. surmonté d’un pilier épais et élevé qui porte deux longues épines, divergeant en Y, un peu inclinges en arriére et recourbées en dehors 4 Vextrémité, comme les cornes d’un chamois. ‘'Téte large derriére, nullement rétrécie derriére Jes yeux. Pronotum et mésonotum fort convexes; métanotum trés abaissé, surmonté de deux épines tres longues. Abdomen globuleux, atténué devant, en dessus. Téte et abdomen lisses et Inisants. Thorax et pédicule tres grossiérement réticulés-ponctués. 'Trés poilues. Noire, avec les pattes, les funicules, et souvent V’abdomen d’un roux plus ou moins brundire. L: 5°34 5°6, Mill....P. rurcata (Smith)... Téte distinctement rétrécie derriére les yeux, Hpines du méta- notum plus courtes. Pilier du pédicule plus gréle et plus bas, surmonté de deux épines, abaissées, trés divergentes, dirigées en dehors et 4 peine en haut, courbées en arriere et embrassant plus ou moins l’abdomen ; les épines de I’écaille ne sont re- courbées que tout pres de leur extrémité ot elles forment un petit crochet. Avant ce crochet trés atténué, elles sont com- primées et larges. D’un roux jaundtre testacé. Téte (sans les mandibules) et extrémité des épines noirdtres, Scapes bruns, Li: 45 Mill......... soseccsseccesarassosveneeLaCO ; P, GRACILIOR, n. st, ___ Pédicule sans pilier ; ses épines nullement recourbées 4 l’extrémité......32 32. Hpines du métanotum longues, fortes, recourbées en dehors a leur extré- mité, en forme de cornes de chamois. 'Téte sans tubercules, Epines de l’écaille embrassant l’abdomen, deux dents verticales entre elles, au sommet de I’écaille. Une petisse dorée sur l’abdomen et sous les métatarses. Presque pas de poils dressés. Noire, mate. L: 8, Mill setteereceeerarceessscessseseesageerseeseeesessesbs RUPICAPRA (Roger). Epines du métanotum recourbées a dehors 4 leur extrémité, mais plus faiblement, ne formant pas\.ie corne de chamois aussi accentué, Deux gros tubercules proéminents sur la téte, 4 Vocciput, un derriéré chaque ceil. Hcaille comme chez la P. rupicapra. Abdomen presque subbordé et un peuavancé devant, en dessus. Mésonotum presque plan de profil ; pronotum fortement convexe devant. Noire, mate, finement reticulée-ponctucée ; thorax, téte et écaille en outre
26 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII,
erossiérement réticulés. Pilosité presque nulle. Pubescence tres diluée. du: 6°8 47 Mill............secessseseesk. TUBERICEPS, D. Sp. Epines du métanotum non recourbées en cornes de chamois, tout au plus faiblement courbées en dehors vers leur extrémité, 'T’éte sans tuber- CCA eclereicasices see scmcieidecectenesciros-m soso ssedeeeasceeecmensseace aoe 33. Téte et thorax grossiérement et profondément réticulés-ponctués ainsi que l’écaille, finement ponctués au fond des mailles. Abdomen fine- ment et densément réticulé-ponctué et mat. Pedicule subcubique, bidenté 4 ses angles antérieurs supérieurs, surmonté derriére de deux longues et fortes épimes divergentes, courbées en arricre. Epines du pronotum et du métanotum longues et robustes ; lespace qui separe leur bases un peu concave dune épine 4 lautre. Epistome bidenté devant. Presque glabre. Mate ; noire ; abdomen souvent d’un brun roussatre. L: 8 410 Mill......P. armava (Le Guillon). Abdomen d’un roux clair. Pattes, antennes, thorax et pédicule
bruns, L: 7 Mill : seulement...,....0.00. -. Var : MINOR (Forel). Tete et thorax avec de grossiéres réticulations qui sont faibles, plus ou moins effacées ; du reste finement et densément réticulés-ponctués et mats comme l’abdomen. Pronotum fort convexe devant. Hpines du thorax assez courtes, surtout celles du pronotum. Celles du méta- notum divergentes, courbées on dehors, caille et abdomen comme chez la P. tubericeps, mais les épines, et surtout les dents supérieures de l’écaille, sont plus courtes. Noire, mate ; pubescence tres courte et extrémement diluée ; pilosite presque nulle, L : 4°8 45°8 Mill...... P. SIMPLEX (Mayr). [—sPINIGERA (Mayr) ]. Réticulations de la téte et du thorax presque entic¢rement effacces.
4a, Ao Mallee tc ceccre poscanenoniacdagoconned var : OBSOLETA, n. var. La téte, le thorax et Yabdomen n’ont guere qu'une sculpture fine. Poilues on. pubescentes + 80804168 CO8OeTHOABESBCCeoeCE ©00000000 BO0000s00 Beco:
34, Les épies de I’écaille n’embrassent pas abdomen ; elles sont divergentes, dirigées en haut et pas ou @ peine courbées en arricre. L’intervalle de leurs bases n’a pas de dents. Hpines du métanotum paralleles, un peu courbées en dedans, Pilosité dressée assez abondante sur le corps et sur les pattes. Pubescence jaunatre, assez abondante, assez erossicre eb contournée, laissant voir la sculpture dans ses intervalles. Epines médiocres. Noire ; abdomen, pattes, antennes eb mandibules dun rouge brunatre. L:6a6°5 Mill ......... P. BICOLOR (Smith).
Les épines de 1’écaille sont abaissées en arriére, divergentes, courbées en dedans eb embrassent la base de abdomen, L’intervalle de leurs
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 27
bases a deux petites dents. Pilosité dressée presque nulle. Pubes- cence serrée, formant un duvet argenté ou doré ...... cesserecceseres 35
35, Hpines du pronotum assez gréles ; épines du métanotum @ peine plus longues qu’elles, assez dressées, divergentes et courbées en dehors pres de leur extremité. Une impression transversale entre le pro- notum et le mésonotum. L’écaille a trois dents entre la base de ses épines ; l'une d’elles est médiane et située devant les deux autres, Les tibias ont & leur bord interne quelques petits piquants. Pubes-
~ cence d’un gris doré. Hpistome avec un lobe antérieur. Quelques rugosités plus grossi¢res sur la téte et le thorax, L: 4°57 Mill...
P. DIVES (Smith),
Epines du pronotum robustes. pines du métanotum bien plus longues qu’elles, trés divergentes, bien moins dressées, robustes, pas ou 4 peine courbées en dehors. Epines de lécaille plus longues; seulement deux dents dans Pintervalle de leurs bases. Stature bien plus robuste. Thorax plus large, bien plus convexe, sans impression transversale Tibias sans trace de piquants ...... dai eeSecielse atecutsiee sopeccecoce 2030
36. Cotés du mésothorax renfiés. Noire, avec une pubescence d’un doré | pale. Hpines de Vécaille plut6t gréles. Noire. Hperons testacés, L: 4545 Mill. Waprés Smith) .....0..-seeceeeeeP. AFFINIS (Smith) [vicina (Roger) }
Cotés du mésonotum non renflés. Pattes rougedtres. Epines de I’écaille robustes. L:546 Mill........ cceeoaeeepoce ecoOSU cecoonceeenot cucce Poesy 4
37. Le pronotum et le mésonotum forment une bosse trés proéminente. Tout Je corps convert d’une pubescence argentée trés dense. Robuste......
P. ARGENTEA (Mayr).
Le thorax est moins fortement convexe et l’est uniformément, d’avant en arriére. Taille moinsrobuste. Pubescence moins dense, laissant voir
Ja sculpture sur la tete eb le thorax, d’un grisaétre moins argenté, souvent en partie d’un doré pale sur l’abdomen. ‘Trés voisine de la précédente ; peut-etre simple race.............0.+2.P. TIBIALIS (Smith),
Liste DES PotyracHis DE LINDE AVEC DESCRIPTION DES ESPE/CES NOUVELLES, SYNONYMIE ET GEOGRAPHIE. 1. P. scissa (Roger). Hemioptica scissa (Roger).
Ceylon (Major Yerbury, Roger).
6 :-—L: 57 4a 62 Mill. Entiérement noir. Ailes brunes. Valvules génitales jaundtres, avec lextrémité de leurs prolongements d’un brun noiratre. Assez finement chagriné et assez Inisant. Yeux allongés, assez comprimés dans le sens transversal, mais non tronqués derriére.
23 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
2. P. aculeata (Mayr).
Ceylon (Major Yerbury) 8 Q @; Kanara (E. H. Aitken) 9 ; Travancore (HI. Ferguson) 8.
9 :—L: 6°5 Mill, Comme l’ouvriére, mais les cuisses et les fémurs sont noirs et les ailes teintées de brunatre. Pronotum avec deux courtes épines. T’écaille a, au lieu d’épines, 4 ses angles supérieurs deux prolongements lamelli- formes, comprimés, bituberculés a l’extrémité.. La pubescence grise est aussi plus abondante sur le devant de la téte et sur le thorax, C’est peut-étre une variété,
& :—L: 5°8 Mill. Teéte plus courte que chez la P. seissa. Yeux arrondis non comprimés ni tronqués, Téte et thorax réticulés-ponctuds et subopaques, Ecaille en noeud arrondi,
3. P. pubescens (Mayr).
Birmanie et Tenasserim (Fea).
var: dlatisquamis, 1, Var.
Birmanie (Major Bingham) (voir tableau).
4, P. jerdonii (Forel).
Ceylon (Major Yerbury) & @Q (voir Forel: Die Nester der Ameisen, Ziirich, 1892, et le tableau ci-dessus). :
@ :—L: 57 4 6 Mill, Ailes teintées de brun, Nervures et tache marginale foncées. Large, trapue; thorax déprimé en dessus. Hpines du thorax un peu plus courtes que chez Pouvriére 4 laquelle elle est du reste identique. ‘Le thorax est subbordé.
5. P. selene (Emery),
Tenasserim (ea).
6. P. saigonensis (Forel). P. thrinax vax : saigonensis (Forel),
Saigon (par M. L, Lortet).
7. P. frauenfeldi (Mayr).
Ceylon (ma collection).
8. P. textor (Smith).
Malacca (d’aprés Smith).
9, P. thrinax (Roger).
Ceylon (Major Yerbury); Calcutta (G. A. J. AOHIEEY) 5 Travancore (H. Ferguson) ; Kanara (T. R. D. Bell).
@ :—L: 6°8 47°5 Mill. Ailes jaunatres ou d’un jaune brunatre, a nervures pales, Le pronotum n’a que deux angles obtus. Epines du métanotum plus courtes que chez louvriére. Hcaille moins épaisse, moins cubique, avec l’épine médiane plus courte et les épines latérales plus longues que chez ¥, ces derniéres presque aussi longues que l’épine médiane, Du reste comme &.
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 29
f:—L: 5°7 46 Mill. Brunatre, varié de brun jaunatre; funicules plus foncés, Chagriné, assez luisant. Pédicule avec un noeud plus ou moins dis- tinctement bituberculé ou trituberculé au sommet.
var : lancearius n. var. (voir tableau) 8 ¢.
Trevandrum (H, Ferguson); Kanara (H. H. Aitken),
10. P. halidayi (Emery).
Tenasserim (Fea).
11. P. elypeata (Mayr). Polyrachis indica (Mayr) (d’aprés Emery in litt): Camponotus indicus (Forel).
Thana District (7. Gleadow); Kanara (IT. Bell); Pooree, Bengale (Tull
Walsh); Orissa (Jas. Taylor); Travancore (Ferguson) ; Ceylon (Mayr), race: P, rastrata (Emery). Polyrachis rastrata (Emery). Tenasserim (Fea). 12. P. punctillata (Roger). Ceylon (d’aprés Roger). 13. PP. striato-rugosa (Mayr). Birmanie (d’apres Mayr). 14, P. convera (Roger). Ceylon (d’aprés Roger), 15. P. striata (Mayr). Singapore (Dr. Arthur Miller). 16. LP. proxima (Roger). Birmanie (Major Bingham et Fea); Singapore (Dr. A. Miller), 17. 2. mayri (Roger). Polyrachis relucens (Mayr) ; nec Latreille.
Ceylon (d’aprés Roger eb Major Yerbury); Kanara (E. H. Aitken); Siam Frontier (Major Fulton); Birmanie (Major- Bingham); Tenasserim (Fea) ; Darjeeling, prés de Sikkim (Christie) ; Travancore (H. 8. Ferguson),
var: pauperata (Emery). Tenasserim (Fea), race: P. intermedia (Forel). Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason), var: prozimo-mayri n, var. (voir tableau). Birmanie (Major Bingham). 18. P. yerburyi 0. sp.
Ceylon (Major Yerbury).
% :—Mandibules striées, mates, avec quelques points et 5 dents. Epistome sans caréne, avec un lobe antérieur arrondi et convexe, non échancré. Dessous
G
30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIiT.
de la téte bordé d’une aréte latérale faible. Front convexe et assez proéminent. Arétes frontales plutot rapprochées. Scapes cylindriques. Tete plus longue que large, 4 cotés convexes. Hpines du pronotum fortes et assez divergentes. Pronotum et mésonotum plus larges que longs (chacun); face basale du métanotum un peu plus longue que large, & peine plus large devant que derriere, terminée derriére par une aréte transversale et par deux dents verticales trés accentuées et comprimées dans le sens antéro-postérieur. Thorax biincisé, bordé d@’une aréte vive un peu moins prolongée que chez la P. swmatrensis. Ecaille épaisse 4 sa base et amincie vers le haut. pines latérales de l’écaille plus fortes que chez la P. swmatrensis et surtout que chez la race P. hamulata.
Téte et thorax striés en long (striés-ridés sur les cotés du thorax et Je devant de la téte), finement rugueux entre les stries, ce qui les rend mats ou soyeux. Pédicule rugueux ; abdomen densément et trés finement réticulé. Sur la téte et sur le thorax la pubescence est plus jaune (moins grise) que sur l’abdomen. Entiérement noire, avec les palpes et le dernier article des tarses roussatres. Pas de reflet métallique distinct (voir du reste le tableau), Stature bien moins robuste que chez la P. pruinosa.
@ :—L: 10 Mill. Ailes brunatres avec les nervures et le pterostigma foncés. Absolument semblable & % ; épmes aussi longues que chez elle et disposées de méme. ‘Trés voisine de la P. pruimosa (Mayr) de Borneo dont elle différe par la forme du métanotum et de lécaille.
19. LP. sumatrensis (Smith). race: P. hamulata (Emery).
Birmanie (Major Bingham) ; Tenasserim (Fea) ; Sibsagar, Assam (Wood- Mason).
La race swmatrensis id. sp. ne se trouve qu’a Sumatra,
20. BP. levissima (Smith). Polyrachis globularia (Mayr).
Barrackpore (Rothney, Minchin) ; Birmanie (Major Bingham et Fea) ; Orissa (Jas. Taylor) ; Calcutta (Wood-Mason) ; Bangkok (Sige).
var : dichrous (Forel).
Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason).
21. P. rastellata (Laireille). Polyrachis busiris (Smith). Polyrachis euryalus (Smith),
Ceylon (Major Yerbury) ; Kanara (E. H. Aitken et T. Bell); Birmanie
(Major Bingham) ; South Konkan (R. C. Wroughton). 22. LP. bellicosa (Smith). Singapore (Dr. A. Muller).
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 31
23. P. bihamata (Drury). Formica affinis (Le Guillon ; nec Smith), Birmanie (Major Bingham) ; Tavoy (Wood-Mason) ; Tenasserim (Fea), 24, P. ypsilon (Emery). Ceylon (Tristschler) ; Malacca (regue du Dr. Emery). 25. PP. levigata (Smith). Malacca (d’aprés Smith). 26. P. hippomanes (Smith). Race: P. ceylonensis (Kmery). M. Emery publiera plus tard le diagnostic de cette race qui differe de la vraie P. hippomanes de Celebes.
27. P. chalybea (Smith).
Singapore (d’aprés Smith),
28. P. venus 0. sp.
Ataran Valley, Birmanie (Major Bingham),
% :—Téte au moins aussi large derriére que devant. Thorax plus large devant que derriére (aussi large devant que derriere chez la P. chalybea.) Les mandibules sont tres finement striées et éparsément ponctuées. Bord antérieur de l’épistome avec une impression médiane, Hpistome sublobé devant. Une marche d’escalier assez distincte du mésonotum 4 la face basale du métanotum. Stature plus robuste que celle de la P. abdominalis (phyllophila), presque aussi robuste que celle de la P. armata. Tout le corps est d’un magnifique bleu foncé, métallique, rappellant celui des espéces bleues des coleopteres du genre Meloe. La teimte du thorax et de la téte tire un peu sur le verdatre, tandis que Je bleu de ’abdomen est pur (voir du reste le tableau).
Mes amis les Prof. G. Mayr et C. Emery m’ont indiqué les differences qui existent entre la P. venus et la P. chalybea en la comparant A leurs types, ce dont j’ai a les remercier ici.
29. P. edipus n. sp.
Ceylon (Major Yerbury).
%:—L: 7 Mill. Longueur d’un scape 2°6, d’un tibia postérieur 3°83 Mill, Mandibules armées de 6 dents, finement striées, avec une ponctuation espacée. Kpistome avec une faible caréne et un lobe antérieur trapéziforme, trés cout, 4 bord antérieur rectiligne eb suberénélé. Arétes frontales fort rapprochées. Front proéminent, 'Téte assez arrondie derriére, d’un ceil 4 l’autre ; cdtés de la téte & peine convexes devant les yeux. Dessous de la téte sans arétes latérales, Thorax long et étroit, sans convexité dorsale, sauf le pronotum qui est légerement convexe ; pronotum et mésonotum chacun beaucoup plus long que large, Pronotum nullement subbordé ; mésonotum fortement subbordé,
32 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Face basale du métanotum 17 fois plus longue que large. Le dos du thorax est & peine convexe d’avant en arriére. L’écaille est conformée tout a fait comme chez la P. abdominalis (voir le tableau), aussi épaisse que large, mais ses épines sont plus abaissées et embrassent un peu V’abdomen. Pubescence d’un jaune grisdtre, courte, assez éparse partout, plus abondante sur Vabdomen ot elle forme un léger duvet grisitre. L’abdomen a encore une ponctuation espacée tres fine.
Tout le corps, les pattes et les antennes d’un verdatre bronzé, trés foncé, en partie noiratre, ayant souvent des reflets d’un rouge cuivré (voir du reste le tableau).
30. P. miillert n. sp.
Singapore (récoltée par le Dr. Arthur Miller auquel je la dédie).
%:—L: 7 Mill. Longueur d'un scape 3°2, d’un tibia postérieur 3°9 Mill. Hpistome fortement caréné ; du reste l’épistome, arctes frontales et mandibules conformés comme chez l4dipus. Front beaucoup plus proéminent et vertex beaucoup moins convexe que chez la précédente. Thorax encore plus étroit et plus alloneé que chez l_Adipus mais sans apparence de bordure nulle part. Une légére échancrure entre le pronotum et le mésonotum, ce qui donne au dos du thorax deux covexités tres faibles. Le mésonotum est deux fois aussi long que large, la face basale du métanotum 24 fois aussi longue que large. Epines métanotales légérement courbées en dedans (comme chez la P. bicolor), assez eréles comme celles du pronotum. Lcaille haute, conique, avec deux épines divergentes. Pubescence extrémement éparse. Scapes élargis eb déprimés vers Vextrémité seulement. Noire ; abdomen en partie d’un rouge ferrugineux fonceé (voir du reste le tableau).
31. P. achilles n. sp.
Birmanie (Major Bingham).
A part sa taille plus robuste, la forme de I’écaille, la face basale du meétano- tum non bordée et ne continuant pas ses bords dans l’épine, enfin 4 part les petits piquants des tibias, cette espece est identique a labdominalis (phyllophita) dont elle n’est peut: tre qu’une race locale (voir le tableau).
32. P. abdominalis (Smith). Polyrachis phyllophila (Smith).
Tenasserim (Kea). .
33. P. mutata (Smith) ? Race : P. aaa n. st.
Birmanie (Major Bingham).
%:—L:7°8 Mill. Longueur d’un scape 2°6, d’un tibia postérieur 4°1 Mill. Mandibules finement et densément strices, armées de 5 dents distinctes. Epis-
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 33
tome 4 peme subcaréné, briévement lobé devant, lareement et faiblement échancré au milieu de son bord antérieur, Thorax allongé, étroit, sans con- vexité dorsale c, 4. d : le mésonotum est concave d’avant en arriére, ce qui donne une faible convexité 4 la région de la suture pro-mésonotale. Pronotum et mésonotum chacun un peu plus long que large ; face basale du métanotum deux fois aussi longue que large. Mésonotum fortement subbordé, pronotum nulle- ment, pines du pronotum longues et divergentes. Abdomen ovale. Noire. Abdomen d’un noir brunatre. Tibias trés comprimés (voir du reste Je tableau).
Tist-ce bien une race de la P. mutata (Smith) ? La description de Smith ne suffit pas pour Je prouver, mais cela me parait probable. Smith en disant “ entirely destitute of haix’’ aura negligé la pubescence, comme il le fait souvent quand elle est faible. La. couleur ne concorde qu’’ moitié et les tibias ne sont pas “ without spies.” Du reste la figure de Smith ne convient pas mal 4 notre type.
34. P. binghamit, n. sp.
Birmanie (Major Bingham).
Q :—L: 55 Mill. Longueur d’un scape 2:1, d’un tibia postérieur 2°5 Mill. Epistome sans apparence de carene, avec un lobe court, trapéziforme, nullement échancré 4 son bord antérieur. Antennes faiblement mais visible- ment renflées vers Vextrémité. Mésonotum légérement concave. 'Tibias moins déprimés que chez la précédente. Voir du reste le tableau qui indique les autres caractéres qui distinguent cette espece de la précédente.
La P. binghamiw est du reste extrémement voisine dela P. mutata race : ajax, mais les caracteres indiqués (antennes, forme de la téte, écailles,*piquants, tibias, dimensions, &c.) sont assez importants pour que je croie qu'il faille len séparer spécifiquement.
35. P. furcata (Smith),
Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason) ; Birmanie (Major Bingham); Tenasserim (Fea). ©
Les exemplaires de ces diverses provenances ont l’abdomen noir, tandis que le type de Smith (Birmanie) l’avait d’un roux testacé.
Race : P. gracilior n. st. (voir le tableau).
Trevandrum (H. Ferguson) ; Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason),
36. P. rupicapra (Roger). Ceylon (d’aprés Roger). 37. LP. tubericeps, 0. sp.
Barrackpore et Benares (Rothney).
% :—L: 6847 Mill. Voisine dela P. rupicapra et de la P. spinigera, dont elle se distingue cependant du premier coup par le tubercule proéminent situé de chaque cété de la téte, un peu en dessus de l’angle postérieur. Hpis- tome subcaréné, avec un lobe court et étroit, subbidenté. Sculpture grossiére
beaucoup plus forte que chez la P. simplex. Tibias cylindriques, sans petits. 5
34 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
piquants. Les deux dents, entre les épines de Vécaille, sont tres pointues. Epines métanotales fort distantes 4 leur base. La fine sculpture réticulée- ponctuée est trés dense. Couleur absolument noire partout. Un peu plus robuste que la P. simplex. 38. P. armata (Le Guillou). Polyrachis pandarus (Smith). Polyrachis defensus (Smith). Birmanie (Major Bingham et Fea); Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason), Myingyan, Birmanie infériewre (B. Y. Watson). var : minor (Forel). Sibsagar, Assam (Wood-Mason).
39. P. simplex (Mayr). Polyrachis spinigera (Mayr).
Poona District (R. Wroughton) ; Calcutta et Barrackpore (Rothney) ; Mussoorie, N.-W. P. (Rothney); Thana District (F. Gleadow); Siwaliks, N W. P. (H. M. Phipson); Birmanie (Major Bingham) ; Trincomali, Cey- lon (Major Yerbury) ; Myingyan, Birmanie ipférieure (H. Y. Watson).
Certainement l’espéce la plus commune du genre en Inde.
@ :—L: 7 Mill. Ailes subhyalines, faiblement teintées de jaunatre. Le pronotum n’a que deux dents triangulaires fort petites. Mésonotum et scutellum avec une grossiére ponctuation espacée, en partie un peu effacée, outre la dense ponctuation réticulaire. Sur la téte, le métathorax et le pro- thorax, de grossitres ponctuations divisent la fine ponctuation réticulaire en eroupes. Du reste comme §.
Var : obsoleta n. var.
Poona (R. Wroughton).
40. LP. bicolor (Smith).
Barrackpore (Rothney) ; Birmanie (Major Bingham).
41, P. dives (Smith).
Peeu Hills, Birmanie (Major Bingham) ; Tounghoo, Birmanie (EH. Y. Wat- son); Ceylon (Major Yerbury); Bangkok (Sige); Hongkong (Dr. Ris) ; Singapore (W’aprés Smith).
42. P. affinis (Smith ; nec Le Guillou). Polyrachis vicina (Roger). Birmanie (d’aprés Smith). 43. P. argentea (Mayr).
Kanara (EB. H. Aitken).
Variété & thorax un peu moins convexe et 4 stature un peu moins robuste que les types de Manille que je dois & l’obligeance de mon ami le Prof. Emery.
9 :—L: 6'°5 Mill. Comme %, mais les épines plus courtes, Ailes brunatres, a neryures bien marquées.
LES FORMICIDES DES INDES ET DE CEYLAN. 35
6 :—L:545°5 Mill. Pubescence plus grisitre eb moins dense, n’ayant qu'un faible reflet argenté. eaille arrondie, ayant & peine deux angles latéraux arrondis, D’un noir en partie un peu brunatre. Pattes d’un brun jaunatre. Pas trace d’épines, Métanotum arrondi, Mandibules sans dents. Epistome subcaréné, 'Téte aussi large que longue.
44, P. tibialis (Smith).
Barrackpore, prés Calcutta (Minchin) 9; Birmanie (Major Bingham),
M. HB. H. Aitken et M. Bell ont récolté & Kanara des exemplaires qu’il est difficile & rapporter & la é/bialis ou & Vargentea, car ils forment assez le passage, de sorte que je pense qu’on en viendra 4 considerer |’ aryenfea comme race de la uubialis.
Dans le tableau jai été obligé de ne tenir compte que des espéces qui me paraissaient assez nettement décrites pour pouvoir étre déterminées. Tl reste plusieurs especes de PInde et de Ceylon qui sont indéchiffrables, ainsi que Wautres dont la Q seule est décrite, ce qui ne permet pas de fixer leur identité, ni leur position dans la systématique. Voici la liste de ce reste dont on ne sait que faire :—
45. P. hasiata (Latreille).
Indes orientales.
ae agit-il de Inde continentale ? C’est peu probable, car c’est 4 Celebes qu’on
retrouvé plus tard cette espéce.
46. P. relucens (Latveille),
Ne se trouve probablement pas sur le continent Indien, ni 4 Ceylan.
47. P. sexspinosa (Latreille). Ne se trouve probablement pas sur le continent Indien, ni 4 Palems 48, P. mdificans (Jerdon).
Indéchiffrable.
49. P. sylvicola (Jerdon),
Indéchiffrable.
50. P. lacteipennis (Smith).
2 Seule décrite.
51. WP. hector (Smith),
Tnsuffisament décrite.
52. P. piliventris (Smith). © Seule décrite, 53. P. flavicornis (Smith).
Insuffisament décrite.
54. P. modesta (Smith).
2 Seule décrite,
55. PP. carbonaria (Smith).
Indéchiffrable, .
56. P. nigra (Mayr). 2 Seule décrite,
36 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIIT.
57. PP. acasta (Smith).
D’apres Forel, Indian Ants, Part II. Je doute maintenant d’avoir eu la veritable P. acasta sous les yeux. Je n’ai plus lexemplaire de Sibsagar sur lequel j’ai fait cette détermination mais je soupconne qu'il s’agissait de la P. tibialis. )
Les déterminations provisoires dont M. Wroughton s’est servi dans son travail “ Our Ants” doivent subir quelques modifications,
La P. levior race : debilis de ce travail est la P. rastellata.
La P. chalybea est la P. venus.
Une partie des P. argentea (Barrackpore) sont la P. tidialis.
La P. indica est synonyme de clypeata.
La P. sumatrensis est la race : P. hamulata (Emery).
La P. sp. (40) est la P. tubericeps.
La P. spinigera (Mayr). Se trouve étre synonyme de la P. simplex (Mayr). Les 9 récoltées par M. Wroughton m’ont améné 4 établir cette synonymie.
NIDS DES POLYRACHIS. .
Dans un travail récent sur les nids des fourmis (Die nester der Ameisen, Zurich, 1892, Neujahrsblatt der Naturf : Gesellsch) : j’ai parlé des différentes manieres dont les fourmis font leurs nids. Dans ‘“ Our Ants” M. Wroughton a décrit divers nids de fourmis des Indes. I] a eu l’obligeance de m’en envoyer un grand nombre.
Le nid des Polyrachis est unique en sont genre, et se distingue de celui de tous les autres genres de fourmis, en ce qu’ il n’a qu'une seule cavité, tapissée de soie, comme le nid d'une arraignée.
J’ai été frappé du fait que ces nids présentent évidemment des faits de mimétisme qui servent 4 les rendre caches. Ils simulent souvent la couleur des féuilles en partie séches (P. argentea) ou aspect d’une feuille tordue par les galles d’autres insectes (P. scissa). Dans le nid de la P. argentea que je viens de recevoir de M. Wroughton, on peut bien observer comment les fourmis tapissent la feuille de soie pure, tandis qu’elles recouvrent la partie libre du nid de débris végétaux grisatres, fixés ala surface extérieure des tissus, de facon a donner 4 cette portion du nid, qui ferme l’aperture de la feuille 4 demi ouverte, Vaspect grisatre de la portion desséchée d’une feuille en
partie morte. L’ouverture par laquelle sortent les fourmis est situeé 4 une place cachée, la ot le tissus de soie touche la feuille.
Un nid de P. rastellata était situé entre deux feuilles et ainsi entiérement caché. _ Les Polyrachis ne paraissent pas tous faire des nids de soie filée ; c'est sur- tout le fait des groupes armata et ammon. La P. mayri fait un nid en carton qui rappelle celui des Dolichoderus et des Cremastogaster, et dont les matériaux sont unis par une substance gluante, non filée, mais évidement sécrétée, comme la soie, par les glandes mandibulaires des fourmis.
The illustrations for this paper (Plates K, LZ and M) will be issued in a subsequent number of the Journal, as soon ag they arrive from England, The paper is piiblished at once at the Special request of the author,—Zd, *
37
ON NEW AND LITTLE-KNOWN BUTTERFLIES FROM NORTH-EAST SUMATRA COLLECTED BY HOFRATH Dr. L. MARTIN.* By Lionet ve Nicr'vitiz, F. E.8., C. M. Z.8., &e. ‘ (With Plates K, L, and M.)
All the butterflies described below were obtained by Hofrath Dr. L. Martin in North-East Sumatra, the rarer ones almost entirely from the little-known Battak Mountains. Dr. Martin has already enriched my collection with 265 species from Sumatra, and has sent me a list giving the names of 324 species contained in his own collection. All of these were collected within a comparatively small radius, so that it may probably be safely assumed that when the whole island is explored and thoroughly collected over, it will be found that fully 600 species inhabit it, of which perhaps 50 may be endemic. The only papers of which I am aware written solely on the butterflies of Sumatra are by Heer P. C. T. Snellen, and are as follows :—
I, “Tijdschrift voor Entomologie,” vol. xx, p. 65 (1877), enu- merating 35 species. I]. “Tijdschrift voor Entomologie,” vol. xxxiii, p. 215 (1890), enumerating 48 species.
III. “ Midden-Sumatra, Lepidoptera” (1892), enumerating 104
species.
Family NYMPHALID Ai, Subfamily Danamnz.
1, DANAIS (Caduga) TYTIOIDES, n. sp., Pl. K, Figs. 1, #; 2, 9.
Hasrrat : Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
EXPANSE: @, 3'2 to 3°5; Q, 4:0 inches,
Description : Matz, Upprrsrpe, forewing black, with the following pale bluish hyaline markings :—the posterior half of the discoidal cell bearing anteriorly and outwardly a fine black line ; two small oval costal spots divided by the second subcostal nervule ; followed by a very short and narrow streak in the subcostal interspace ; then another streak twice as broad and three times as long as the one above it in the upper discoidal interspace ; an oval spot in the lower discoidal interspace ; two nearly equal-sized spots in the upper median interspace, the outer spot rectangular, the inner triangylar ; two similar Spots in the lower median interspace, except that the inner spot of the two is twice as large as the outer one; a very large streak occupies nearly the whole of the
* A short preliminary description of the new species described in this paper ap- peared in vol. vii, page 555, of this Journal.
38 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Vitt.
submedian interspace from its base to one-fourth from the margin; a narrow streak in the sutural area fromthe base reaching to one-fourth from the outer margin; a curved submarginal series of seven rounded spots; a few obscure marginal dots towards the anal angle. Hindwing with the outer third castaneous darkening to the margin, the rest of the wing pale hyaline bluish 5 the discoidal cell bears outwardly two narrow castaneous streaks ; two small subapical round bluish spots divided by the second subcostal nervule; the usual secondary sexual characters of the subgenus at the anal angle. UNDERSIDE, Forewing marked as above, but the black ground-colour at the apex and outer margin tinted with dull castaneous. Aindwing as above, but the outer margin bears an anterior decreasing submarginal series of small round spots, and an incomplete (not reaching the apex) marginal series of dots. FEMALE, differs from the male only in its much broader wings, the outer margin of the forewing slightly, instead of deeply, emarginate, the /indwing has the outer margin rounder, less obliquely cut off, and the castaneous colouring much redder ; the male secondary characters, of course, are absent.
Allied to, but quite distinct from, D. tytia, Gray, which occurs throughout the Himalayas, Assam, Burma, with a slight variety in the Malay Peninsula. Differs therefrom in its much smaller size, conspicuously narrower wings, the male has the outer margin of the forewing much more deeply excavated, the hindwing with the outer margin nearly straight instead of rounded, greatly cut off obliquely ; in both sexes the forewing has the hyaline portion of the cell less than half as wide, the streak in the subcostal interspace very small and narrow ; the hindwing in the male deep dull castaneous instead of ferruginous.
Of the D. tytia group of the subgenus Caduga there are at present known, besides that species, D. niphonica, Moore, from Japan and doubtfully from Askold, North Formosa, and Chekiang, North China*; and D. loochooana, Moore, from the Loo Choo Islands. The occurrence of a fourth species so far south as Sumatra is very interesting.
D. tytioides is admirably mimicked by Hestina caroline, Snellen, an insular modified race of the continental Indian Hestina nama, Doubleday.
Described from three males and three females, which show but slight indivi- dual differences.
2, EUPLGIA (Narmada) MARTINI, n. sp., Pl. K, Figs. 3,¢5;4, 2.
Hasrrat : Battak Mountains, Sumatra,
EXpPanse: @, 3°9 to 4:1; Q, 4:1 inches,
* This species is entirely ignored by Mr. J, H. Leech in his “ Butterflies from China, Japan, and Corea ;” he considers that the species occurring in those regions is D. tytia, and records it from “ China common, is found all over Japan, and has been recorded by Oberthiiz from the Isle of Askold.”’
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 39
Description: MALE, UPPERSIDE, both wings very deep and rich velvety dead black. Forewing with a rninute costal white dot placed between the first and second subcostal nervules; four subapical spots—the uppermost small and oval placed between the fourth and fifth subcostal nervules, the second and third much larger and oval placed in the subcostal and upper discoidal inter- spaces, the fourth equal in size to the first placed in the lower discoidal interspace. In two specimens there is a fifth smallest spot on the costa placed between the third and fourth subcostal nervules. ‘This series of spots is placed obliquely outwards and appears to run into and coalesce with the marginal series at the eighth spot (counting from the apex),which latter series consists of fourteen small spots, decreasing in size from the inner angle to the apex, placed in pairs in the interspaces ; the two sexual brands as usual in the submedian interspace— the upper short and narrow, the lower broad and twice as long as the upper. Hindwing with the costal area broadly whitish, followed by a broad pale castaneous area reaching to the middle of the discoidal cell, the abdominal area fuscous, all the rest of the wing deep black as in the forewing ; a marginal series of thirteen rounded spots, with an inner series of seven spots from the second subcostal nervule to the submedian nervure. In two specimens these two serieg of spots, instead of being quite distinct and well separated, completely coalesce and form short streaks. UNDERSIDE, both wings olivaceous-fuscous, the marginal series of spots as on the upperside. orewing with an additional small spot at the lower outer end of the discoidal cell, two on the costa making a complete series one in each interspace divided by the subcostal nervules, and two in each median interspace ; the inner margin broadly shining fuscous. Hindwing with two additional spots to the inner marginal series placed anteriorly, and a dot in the second median interspace just beyond the end of the cell. Cilia of both wings alternately black and white in equal proportions. Frmane. Upprrsrpe, both wings very much paler than in the male, black, but not of a deep, rich, velvety shade. orewing with three costal spots in a cluster: a complete submarginal series of eight spots ; two small spots inthe median interspaces ; the marginal series of spots as in the forewing, but rather larger. Hindwing with the two marginal series of spots almost sitely coalesced into streaks ; only anteriorly are they free. UNDERSIDE, both wings coloured as in the male, Forewing as on the upperside, but the two spots in each of the median inter- Spaces larger ; the inner margin broadly white; a short white streak in the submedian interspace. Hindwing as on the upperside, but with an additional spot at the outer end of the cell, and a complete series of five beyond the
cell—one in each interspace,
I know of no species with which this can be compared. The beautiful deep velyety black of the male on the upperside is only matched, as far as I know,
40 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
by the same sex of. L. (Anadara) gamelia, Hubner, from Java. 'The coalescing of the submarginal with the marginal series of spots on the forewing in the male is, I believe, quite a unique character.
Described from four males and two females in my own collection ; several others of both sexes are in that of Hofrath Dr. L. Martin, after whom I have great pleastire in naming the species as a slight tribute to his entomological knowledge, zeal, and enterprise in sending natives imto the mountains of Sumatra to collect in spots inaccessible to Europeans.
Subfamily SaTyRmIvz.
3, LETHE DARENA, Felder, Pl. K, Fig. 7, ¢.
Debis darena, Felder, Reise Novara, Lep., vol. i, p. 498, n. 862, pl. lxviii, figs. 4,5, female (1866).
Haprtat : Java (elder); Sumatra.
ExpansE: @, 2°8 to 3°1 inches.
Description: Mate. Uprersipe, forewing black, but the basal three- fourths overlaid with long hair-like rich ferruginous scales ; an orange-coloured spot on the costa beyond the end of the discoidal cell ; a round whitish spot att the apex ; five marginal rich ferruginous spots one in each interspace from the lower discoidal nervule to the inner margin, the series of spots gradually, but regularly, approaching the outer margin of the wing—the posterior spot on the margin at the anal angle, the anterior spot well removed from it. Hindwing with the base fuscous, but so heavily overlaid with long ferruginous setze as to almost entirely hide the ground-colour, the outer half of the wing rich ferruginous free of long hairs ; a submarginal series of five almost blind round black ocelli, the uppermost ocellus much the largest, the middle one quite small in one specimen, but in two other specimens the three posterior spots are equal- sized ; the second spot anteriorly second also in poimt of size ; two submarginal closely approximated dark brown lines. Unpbmrstpn, both wings richly variegat- ed, the ground-colour purplish-brown. orewing with a broad rich deep brown bar across the discoidal cell at about its middle ; a still broader bar beyond ; a chevron-shaped mark across the submedian interspace at the point where the first median nervule originates, with its angle outwards ; a broad discal irregular band immediately beyond the outer end of the cell, commencing on the costa, ending in the middle of the submedian interspace ; a narrower, decreasing, pale purplish-white band placed outwardly against the first band ; followed by a large rich deep brown triangular area, its base on the costa, its apex in the first median interspace ; two whitish apical spots ; posterior to which in the discoidal interspaces are two perfect ocelli, the upper twice as large as the lower ; two submarginal rich deep brown lines ending posteriorly about the first median nervule, the inner line lunulated, the outer straight ; the submedian interspace
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. At
outwardly beyond the chevron mark rich chrome-yellow, this colour outwardly extending into the interspace on either side of the submedian one. Hindwing with a broad discal rich deep brown band crossing the middle of the cell, widest on the costa, dislocated and slightly shifted outwardly posterior to the cell, fading away to nothing in the submedian interspace; a broad outer discal irreoular similar band, anteriorly it curves round the large anterior ocellus and throws out inwardly a spur placed on the lower disco-cellular nervule, ending posteriorly on the submedian nervure ; a submarginal series of six perfect ocelli, the anterior one much the largest, the fifth the next largest, the second, fourth and sixth the next in size and equal-sized, the third the smallest, the sixth
bipupiled ; two submarginal limes—the inner one broad and deep red, the outer “narrow and deep brown ; cilia pale yellow inwardly defined by a fine dark thread. Antennce with the shaft red, the club black with a red tip.
Described from three male examples obtained in the Battak Mountains. The Species was originally described from a female example. It is the most beauti- ful species of the genus known to me, and is probably very rare, as out of some thousands of Javan butterflies 1 have received, I have not found LZ. darena amongst them,
Subfamily NyMPHALIN ZA.
4, TERINOS TEOS, n. sp., Pl. K, Figs. 5, ¢ ; 6, 9.
HaAsirat : Sumatra.
EXPANSH: @, 2°85; @, 2°90 inches.
Description : Mane. UPprrsipe, both wings rich shining purple, all the veins more or less narrowly defined with reddish-ochreous. Forewing with the usual velvety-black shining sexual patch occupying half the surface, commenc- ing on the inner margin ab less than half the length of the margin from the base and reaching the anal angle, reaching to the lower discoidal nervule, and extend- ing on the disc along the first median nervule and submedian nervure, but never | quite touching the discoidal cell; a similar black streak extends broadly along both sides of the upper discoidal nervule. Hindwing with a large velvety-black shining sexual patch at the apex, ending abruptly at the second subcostal ner- vule ; the outer margin rather, and the abdominal margin very, broadly fuscous. Cilia of the hindwing reddish-ochreous, of the forewing posteriorly reddish- ochreous, anteriorly black. UNDERSIDE, both wings castaneous, crossed by numerous more or less zigzag shining pale purple lines. Forewing with a round white subapical spot. Aindwing with a discal series of five oval deep castaneous spots, one in each interspace from the submedian to the upper sub- costal, except the discoidal which lacks a spot, the middle spot the smallest. FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, loth wings fuscous. Forewing with the basal area extending just beyond the disco-cellular nervules rich shining purple ; a broad discal somewhat obscure dark fuscous fascia outwardly touched with the purple
6
429 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCTETY, Vol. VIII.
colour; a submarginal narrow waved similar fascia, the outer margin, especially at the apex, broadly dark fuscous. Hindewing with the base and a large discal area rich shining purple, the latter area inwardly bounded by the false termina- tion to the discoidal cell, anteriorly by the second subcostal nervule, posteriorly by the first median nervule, outwardly not reaching the margin ; a waved, rather broad, submarginal line. UNDERSIDE, both wings asin the male, but the ground-colour and the shining pale purple lines all paler.
Nearest to 7’. robertsia, Butler, from the Malay Peninsula, from which it differs conspicuously in both sexes in lacking the two white (sometimes tinted with ochreous) spots on the upperside of the hindwing near the outer margin in the upper median and discoidal interspaces ; and on the underside of the hind- wing in having the marginal narrow slightly waved line, and the submarginal highly waved broad line, pale purple throughout, in 7’. robertsia they are white.
Mr, A. RB. Wallace describes a “‘ Local form £&.” of T. robertsia from Sumatra* thus :—“ Browner [than 7’. robertsia], with the blue portions more violet, and the white posterior spots replaced by rufous.” In 7’. feos these spots are barely traceable. “The [lower] disco-cellular [nervule of the forewing | meets the median nervure at the origin of the second median nervule.” In the four specimens of 7’. feos and eight of 7’. rebertsia before me as I write, I find that the lower disco-cellular nervule of the forewing, though varying a hundred per cent. in position, always meets the median nervure well before the origin of the second median nervule, which agrees with Mr. Wallace’s remarks on the neuration of the latter species, and would appear to separate his Local form JA. and my 7’, teos from it. It is interesting to note that 7. atlita, Fabricius, and T’, teos, de Nicéville, differ precisely in the same way, 7.¢., in the absence of the white spots on the upperside of the hindwing, these spots being present in their Malay Peninsula correlatives, T. teuthras, HiGwiteon and 7’, robertsia, Butler.
Described from three male specimens in my own and one female in the collec- tion of Dr. L. Martin.
5, ATHYMA ASSA, n. sp., Pl. K, Fig. 8, @.
Hasirat : Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
Expanse: @, 2°3 inches.
Description: Mare. UpprrsipE, both wings black. Forewing with the following milky-white markings :—a very narrow streak in the discoidal cell extending beyond it but for a very short distance; three narrow subapical spots, the middle one the largest ; a large oval spot in the first median interspace, a quadrate one below it filling the interspace and indented at both sides, a small elongated spot on the sutural area, these three spots outwardly marked with pale blue; a discontinuous submarginal whitish line, broken in the upper
SV ik eat opi aI SS TU a eet ge ee eaten ACE Et * Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1869, p. 8342. Heer P.C.T. Snellen also records 7. ro- bertsié (sic) from Sumatra in Tijd. voor Ent., vol. xxxiii, p. 218 1889-90),
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 43
median interspace, beg there curved inwards towards the base of the wing ; a very indistinct pale marginal line. Hindwing with a broad, out- wardly-blue-edged, discal white band, commencing broadly at the costal nervure, increasing in width to the submedian nervare, where it terminates; a prominent but narrow submarginal band, divided into spots by the veins, eradually increasing in width from the costa to the submedien nervure, where it ends; a pale indistinct marginal line. UNDERSIDE, both wings reddish- brown, all the white markings more prominent than above, and tinted with shining bluish. Forewing has the three subapical spots joined to the submar- ginal line ; an oval black spot in the submedian interspace, placed internally at the base of the first median nervule ; a diffused blackish spot in the same interspace between the large discal white spot and the submarginal line. Hindwing with an. additional curved basal white streak, placed anterior to the costal nervure; the abdominal margin broadly metallic greenish. Cita of both wings black, bearing a white dot in the middle of each interspace. A ddo- men at the base above with a broad bluish-white band.
Nearest to A. nivifera, Butler, from Nepal and Assam (sic, Butler), the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Nias, and Borneo, Differs from Straits and Sumatran Specimens in having the discoidal streak of the forewing narrower and much shorter, the three subapical spots half as wide, the two posterior of the discal spots narrower, thereby all combining to make the black ground-colour of the wing of considerably greater extent. In the hindwing the discal band is broader, and instead of ending anteriorly in a small round spot, it is continued uninter- ruptedly and widely to the costal nervure. ‘The first subcostal nervule of the hindwing on the upperside is black not prominently snow-white as it is in A, nivifera. On the underside of both wings the ground-colour is reddish-brown or castaneous, not hair-brown ; in the forewing the discoidal streak is longer and quite undivided; there are no black streaks placed on the ground-colour between the veins, on the hindwing the discal band is wider, especially so at each end, and the series of rounded blackish spots between the discal and sub- marginal bands in A, assa is larger, more diffused, and deep castaneous instead of blackish. I have not seen A. nefte, Cramer, from Java, but that species is probably distinct from A, assa to judge from Mr. Moore’s figures of it in Proc, Zool, Soc. Lond., 1858, p. 13, n. 7, pl. 1, fig. 5, male and female. A. reta, Moore, from Sumatra, is another closely allied species, but differs apparently from A. assa in the forewing in having the terminal spot well separated from the rest of the discoidal streak, in the presence of an additional spot in the second median interspace, and in the hindwing in having the discal band widest on the costa, narrowest on the abdominal margin, while in A, assa the reverse is the case,
Described from two male specimens in my collection,
44 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, Vit.
Genus RUTHALIA, Htibner; subgenus NORA, nov.
Mats. Differs from the subgenus Felderia, Semper, in the FOREWING being shorter, the apex acute, not truncate, the ower margin slightly, stead of strongly, excavated below the apex, the mmner margin straight, not outwardly bowed, all the subcostal nervules free, instead of the first anastomosing with the costal nervure. HiNDWING very triangular, the anal angle forming the apex of the triangle, instead of almost quadrate; a patch of shining glandular black scales at the base of the costa occupying the base of the subcostal interspace, anteriorly bounded by the costal nervure, posteriorly by the second subcostal nervule, the “ male mark”’’ being almost similar to that in Felderia, but is not perhaps quite so dense or conspicuous. Frmate. Formwine shaped much as in the male, the apex not quite so acute ; the first subcostal nervule anastomosing with the costal nervure as in both sexes of Felderia, Hinpwine broad, quadrate, shaped as in Felderia. Type, the “ Adolias” kesava, Moore.
Hurwata (Vora) Krsava, Moore.
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 45
This subgenus will comprise the following species :— Euthalia (Nora) kesava, Moore. ‘ discispilota, Moore. Probably one species. rangoonensis, Swinhoe. } ramada, Moore. decorata, Butler. a » bipunctata, Vollenhoven.
es! » _ salia, Moore.
Ee » erana, de Nicéville.
i » (2) laverna, Butler.
se » lavernalis, de Nicéville.
All these species I possess, except #. laverna and £. lavernalis. There are probably other described species which should also be included in the list which J have not seen. The subgenus is a very compact and natural one, all the species being closely allied.
I give below a key to the subgenera which I would admit in the genus Huthalia, 'To my mind there is something peculiar and distinctive in all Luthalias, As far as is known, their transformations are similar, and in the field they have the same habits. ‘They have a bold flight, settle with wings both closed and open, the former more especially when alarmed. ‘They are particularly partial to the juices of over-ripe fruit. I deprecate as much the splitting up this genus into numerous genera as I do those of Danais, Huplea, Lethe, Mycalesis, Neptis, Charaxes, Papilio, and others, At the same time, for classificatory purposes, it is most convenient to institute subgenera for the various groups into which the above-named and other large genera can be divided. If these subgenera be raised to the rank of genera, at once all connection between them appears to be lost, a Dophia becomes as good a genus as an Huthalia, this being very far from the case, while Dophia, Huthalia and, say, Charazes are all genera of equal rank, which misrepresents the facts, as Oharares is entirely distinct from the other two, which latter are closely allied.
Key to the subgenera included’in the genus Huthalia. A. Forewing with the discoidal cell closed. a, Forewing, apex much produced. 1. DOPHLA, Moore, type £. evelina, Stoll, b, Forewing, apex not produced, the outer margin slightly concave. 2, LEXIAS, Boisduval, type H. eropus, Linnzus, B. Forewing with the discoidal cell open.
a, Male, hindwing, upperside with a glandular patch of black scales below the costa,
46 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
a1. Male, forewing, apex produced, truncate, the outer margin deeply excavated, first subcostal nervule anastomosed with the costal nervure ; hindwing quadrate.
3. FELDERIA, Semper, type EL. phiegethon, Semper.
61. Male, forewing, apex not produced, acute, the outer margin not deeply excavated, first subcostal nervule free from the costal nervure ; hindwing triangular.
4. NORA, de Nicéville, type L. kesava, Moore. b. Male, hindwing, upperside with no ‘‘ male-mark.” a1. Palpi with third joint not slenderly produced, bristle-like. a2. Hindwing triangular, anal angle produced. 5. EUTHALIA, Hibner, type L. lubentina, Cramer. Aconthea, Horsfield, type EL. primaria, Horsfield,—E£. aconthea, Cramer. Adolias, Boisduval, type E. aconthea, Cramer. Itanus, Doubleday, type EL. phemius, Doubleday and Hewitson. 62. Hindwing quadrate, anal angle rounded, not produced. 6. SYMPHADRA, Hiibner, type LE. thyelia, Fabricius,=L. nas, _ Forster. 61. Palpi with third joint slenderly produced, bristle-like. 7. TANAECIA, Butler, type E. pulasara, Moore.
6. EUTHALIA (Nora) ERANA, n. sp., Pl. L, Figs. 1, ¢ ; 2, 9.
Hasrrat : Sumatra.
EXpansE : @, 2°83; 2, 2°7 inches.
Description : Mate. UPpprrsipe, loth wings dark brown. Forewing with the usual black linear markings in and below the discoidal cell ; a whitish brown-sullied discal lunular band, consisting of six portions, the two upper- most the widest, the third subequal to the fifth, the fourth rather smaller than the first and second, the sixth duplicated ; this band bears outwardly a fine highly lanceolate white line, itself outwardly narrowly defined with black ; the outer margin towards the anal angle paler than the rest of the wing. Hindwing with the usual black markings in the cell ; a broad discal white band from the costa where it is widest to the submedian nervure, bearing a prominent highly lanceolate narrow black line, which anteriorly divides the band almost equally, but posteriorly approaches the outer border of the band ; the outer margin broadly from the anal angle, but decreasingly towards the apex of the wing, blue, the posterior interspace green ; the three apical interspaces margi- nally of the colour of the ground ; the abdominal margin ereenish-white. UNDERSIDE, both wings rich ochreous, with the usual basal black markings. Forewing with the discal band of the upperside but bluish-white, prominently outwardly defined with black. Hindwing with an even discal bluish-white
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 47
band, outwardly defined with the Iunulated blackish line of the wpperside ; the abdominal margin tinted with bronzy-greenish, FEMALE, UPPERSIDE, both wings much paler than in the male, dull ochreous-brown ; with the discal whitish band much as in the male, but with no outer blue band on the hind- wing, UNDERSIDE, both wings almost precisely like the male, except that the outer margins are tinted with opalescent-whitish,
Nearest to &. salia, Moore, from Java,* from which £. erana differs in the male on the upperside of the forewing in the discal band not being “ margined, outwardly with dull blue,” and on the hindwing in having the lanceolate black line much more deeply zigzagged, the discal white band twice as broad. The female differs on the upperside of the hindwing in having the discal white band much less prominent, sullied with brownish instead of pure white, and con- siderably narrower.
The species figured as H. laverna by Butler in his ‘“ Lepidoptera Exotica,” p. 174, pl. lx, fig. 5, male (1874), from Borneo, appears to be another closely allied species, differing at a glance from Z. erana, however, in the discal band. of the hindwing on the upperside in the male being blue instead of white, and with no blue region beyond. It is very close to &. decorata, Butler, but, as figured> has the discal band of the forewing on the upperside anteriorly composed of a double series of pure white highly angled lunales, while in Z. decorata the band throughout is sullied with fuscous. As Mr. Butler has elected to consider the female of his &., laverna from Penang and Malacca as the type of his species (both sexes of which are described and figured by Mr. Distant in his “ Rhopalocera Malayana’’), I propose to name the male figured by Mr. Butler, Euthalia lavernalis, as it is at present unnamed.
E. erana is described from a single pair of specimens in my collection,
7. EUTHALIA (Tanaécia ?) ELONH, n. sp., Pl. L, Fig. 3, ¢. Hasirat: Battak Mountains, Sumatra, Expanse: ¢, 2°7 inches,
DESCRIPTION: MaLe, Upprrstps, both wings dark hair-brown or fuscous, Forewing with the usual linear black markings in and beneath the discoidal cell ; a discal very obscure pale band, to be seen only in some lights, broad on the costa, rapidly diminishing in width to the third median nervule; the anal angle bearmg three increasing metallic green spots divided from the margin by a fine line of the ground-colour and from each other by the veins,
* Heer P. C. T. Snellen in Tijd. voor Ent., vol. xxxiii, p. 217 (1890), records “ Adolias”’ salia from Sumatra, but the species here described was apparently not recognized by him as a species distinct from JZ. salia.
48 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Viti.
Hindwing with the usual linear black markings in the cell; a discal series of six small obscure black spots, followed by a broad submarginal pure white band crossed by the black veins, decreasing in width at either end, bounded anteriorly and posteriorly by a narrow metallic green line, both lines increasing in width towards the abdominal margin where they meet in a poit, the anterior line through four interspaces divided from the broad submarginal white band by narrow lunules of the ground-colour ; abdomthal margin broadly pale fuscous. Cilia of both wings very narrow, white. UNDERSIDE, forewing reddish-brown ; the discoidal black markings very prominent; a discal irregular lunulated black band; a slightly curved submarginal series of six increasing round black spots ; the apex and outer margin decreasingly pale violet. Hindwing pale violet, the — outer margin fuscous; the white submarginal band as above, inwardly bounded by a series of round black spots between the veins, the innermost spots linear, recurved to the abdominal margin; followed by a series of four linear black spots from the third median nervule to the submedian nervure; then an angulate series of eight spots extending right across the disc of the wing, the discoidal cell and the base marked with numerous black spots.
Nearest to Zanaécia nicéviller, Distant, from Perak, the type and two males of which I am able to compare with 7’. elone, differing conspicuously on the upperside of the forewing in having a very small metallic green area at the anal angle instead of a large blue area, and on the hindwing in having a large submarginal pure white band defined on both sides by metallic green, and not reaching the outer margin, not bearing a series of black spots at its middle, instead of a much broader blue band extending right up to the outer margin, On the underside of the hindwing the black macular markings are very well marked and prominent, much more so than in 7’. nicevillez, and the white band is again a conspicuous differential character. 7. zichri, Butler, from Sarawak (Borneo) and Malacca, appears to be another allied but quite distinct species.
Can the genus Zanaécia be retained as a full genus? As ab present under- stood it contains a very heterogeneous collection of euthaliad butterflies ; but, as Mr. Doherty has pointed out,* the one character by which I once thought it could be separated from Huthalia, viz., by the anastomosis of the first subcostal nervule with the costal nervure of the forewing, has been shown by him to be utterly inconstant, even in the same species, and there appears to be, therefore, no other generic character left, unless the slender bristle-like terminal joint to the palpi be considered of sufficient generic significance, but, as far as my col- lection goes, only 7’. pulasara, Moore, which is the type of Zenaécia, T. aruna, Feder, and 7’. martigena, Weymer, possess this feature, all the other so-called
* Jour. A. 8. B., vol. lviii, pt. 2, p. 121 (1889).
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 49
Tanaéecias, including 7. nicévillei and 7. elone, have the palpi normal and as in typical Hathalia. At best Tanaéecia can, I think, only be retained as a subgenus. E. elone is described from a single specimen in Dr. L. Martin’s collection.
8. CYRESTIS (Chersonesia) CYANHE, n. sp., PL. L, Figs. 6, #; 7, 9.
Hasrrat : Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
EXPANse: @, 9, 1°65 inches.
DEscrIpTION : Mate. UPpPERSIDE, both wings rich deep orange. fore- wing with a short black basal line ; two subbasal lines filled in with fuscous ; the disco-cellular nervules enclosed by two exceedingly fine lines, the space between them of the ground-colour, these two lines themselves enclosed in two other lines filled in with fuscous ; a broad discal single line ; a pair of sub- marginal lines enclosing two short lines, the anterior of these placed between the discoidal nervules, the posterior between the second median nervule and the submedian nervure; a marginal line—all these black lines almost straight, and reaching from the costa to the inner margin. AMindwing with no basal line ; the two following pairs of lines as in the forewing, but the outer pair, instead of enclosing two fine disco-cellular lines, has a single line on its inner edge ; the discal and submarginal lines as in the forewing, but the latter yaiv enclosing a continuous broad black line, ending at the anal angle in two detached spots ; a marginal diffused line, anda very fine anteciliary line. UnpersipE, both wings as above, all the black markings very prominent, the two basal pairs of lines not filled in with fuscous, the ground-colour a trifle paler perhaps than on the upperside. FEMALE, much as in the male, but the wings broader, the ground-colour very much paler, all the black markings less intense.
Nearest to C. risa, Doubleday and Hewitson, which occurs from Kumaon — to Assam, in Burma, and again in Java, but not in the Malay Peninsula ; differs therefrom in the male in its darker ground-colour, the two basal pairs of lines on the upperside being filled in with fuscous, the discal single line being much broader, and especially in the absence of all violet markings in the space enclosed by the submarginal pair of lines, this being a very conspicuous feature in C. risa. In the hindwing of C. cyanee these purple markings are replaced by a broad black line ; also in C. risa there is always a more or less conspicuous series of pale yellow triangular markings in both wings, but more especially in the hindwing, placed internally to the inner of the two submar- ginal lines, which is quite absent in C. cyanee.
Described from a single pair in my collection.
Family LEMONIIDA. Subfamily NEMEOBIINZ. 9. ABISARAVAMDAS asp) Pl. i Bis. 10, (4. Hasrrar: Battak Mountains, Sumatra. EXPANSE;. ¢, 2°1 inches. Description: Mane, UppreErsipe, loth wings dull hair-brown. Forewing
with two pale, almost straight, discal bands, extending from the costa to the 7
50 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIIT
inner angle, rather far apart en the costa, close together posteriorly, the inner band twice as wide as the outer; a short obscure fine marginal white line at the inner angle. Hindwing outwardly becoming pale brown; the outer third of the wing pure white, but apically and anally of the brown ground- - colour ; a small white spot at the apex, then two large jet-black spots divided by, and bounded anteriorily and posteriorly by, the rich ochreous termina- tions of the second subcostal, discoidal, and third median nervules, the anterior black spot surrounded on three sides by a white line, the posterior spot marked anteriorly and posteriorly by a white line; a rather large triangular brown spot at the base of the tail; a very small brown spot in the first median interspace; a duplicated jet-black spot divided only by the fold in the submedian interspace ; a narrow black line at the anal angle along the margin, with similar, but still narrower, decreasing black limes in the three anterior interspaces ; a very narrow marginal black line ; tai white. Cilia of the forewing brown, of the hindwing pure white. UNDERSIDE, both wings with the ground-colour much paler than above, hoary at the base. Forewing with the discal lines more prominent than on the upperside, pure white; the fine white line at the inner angle more prominent. Aindwing marked much as above, but the outer white area is seen to bear inwardly an almost continuous brown line, it being broken only in the median interspaces, where it is represented by two brown spots, and is recurved to the abdominal margin above the anal angle.
In the ground-colour of the upperside, A. ata resembles A. neophron, Hewitson, but the two whitish bands of the forewing ally it more nearly to A, savitri, Felder, which also occurs in Sumatra. A. ata is abundantly distinct from all its allies by the presence of the large outer white area on both sides of the hindwing.
Described from two examples in my collection.
Family LYCASNID A.
10. YASODA PITANE, n. sp., Pl. L, Fig. 5, ¢.
Hasitat : Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
Expanse: @, 1°35 inches,
Description : Maur. UPpERsIpn, both wings rich orange-yellow. Fore- wing with a very broad deep black outer border with its inner edge evenly curved, the border broadest at the apex, nearly three millimeters broad at the inner angle ; a minute black dot in the second median interspace ; the base of the wing powdered with dusky. Aindwing with more than the outer half of the wing deep black, this black area commencing very narrowly on the costa, then broadly on the outer margin as far as the discoidal nervule, when it is continued across the wing to the abdominal margin parallel with the costa ; the
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. ol
“ male-mark ” defined by a thin orange line ; the base of the wing powdered with dusky; éail black, UnpERsIDE, both wings brownish-orange, with the usual annular fine macular markings. Hindiwing powdered with violet and lack in the anal area.
Nearest to Y. pita, Horsfield, which I have from Sumatra and Java, differ- ing therefrom in the broader outer black margin to the forewing, and especially in. having more than half the area of the hindwing black, in the male of Y. pita the outer margin alone is narrowly black, with a broad black streak along the “ male-mark.”
Described from a single male in my collection.
Family PAPILIONID A. Subfamily Prermvz.
11. DELIAS DANALA, n. sp., Pl. L, Fig. 9, 4.
Hapitat: Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
EXPANSE: &, 2°2 inches,
DesorieTion : Mate, UPpERsipE, both wings dead chalky white. ore- wing with the costa as far as the subcostal nervure dusky ; the apex very broadly (extending, in fact, almost to the outer end of the discoidal cell), but rapidly decreasing to the anal angle, where it ends in a point, dusky, bearing three indistinct whitish spots between the veins anterior to the third median nervule. Hindwing with the outer margin posteriorly narrowly black, the black colour extending inwardly slightly between the veins in a dusky powder- ing. UNDERSIDE, forewing as above, but the veins outwardly, rather broadly, defined with black ; there are also five subapical spots between the veins, of which the uppermost on the costa is very small, the next the largest and pale yellow, the three following decreasingly smaller and dusky white. Aindwing clear yellow, all the veins narrowly black, the outer margin with a rather broad blackish border, bearmg five lunular spots between the veins, of which the three posterior ones are whitish, the two anterior yellow.
Nearest to D. singhapura, Wallace*, known to me by the figure and descrip- tion only, from Singapore and Borneo, differs in its smaller size, that species being 3°12 inches in alar expanse, the forewing rounded, not conspicuously elongated, and with the apex rounded, not highly pointed ; on the underside of the fore- wing the veins—-especially the median nervure—are less broadly defined with black, the marginal spots are smaller and only five, instead of six, in number ; on the hindwing the outer black border is narrower, less deeply black, the spots smaller, less distinct, entire, not divided by the internervular folds, five instead of six in number, the uppermost one of D. singhapura in the upper subcostal interspace being wholly wanting. Other allied species are D. agoranis, Grose
* Trans, Ent. Soc. Lond., third series, vol. iv, p. 353, n. 29, pl. vii, fig. 2, male (1867).
52 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Smith, Rhop. Ex., vol. i., Delias I, figs. 7, 8, male (1889), from the Siamese
frontier of Burma, and D. kuehni, Honrath, Berl. Ent. Zeitsch., vol. xxx,
p. 295, pl. vi, fig. 2, male (1886), from Bangkai Island, near Celebes. Described from a single example in Dr. Martin’s collection.
12. DELIAS DERCETO, n. sp., Pl. L, Fig. 4, @.
Hasrrat: Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
EXPANSE: @, 3:0; @, 2°7 to 3°4 inches.
Descriprion: Mane. Uppersipn, both wings deep black. Forewing with two white spots at the end of the discoidal cell defining the disco-cellular nervules ; a submarginal series of seven oval whitish spots placed between the veins. Hindwing bearing a large, anteriorly white powdered with dusky, posteriorly pale primrose-yellow, area divided by the veins, occupying the outer end of the cell, this area is bounded outwardly by a broad black border, which at the anal angle dwindles away to nothing, UNDERSIDE, forewing with the ground-colour black, but with a large area from the inner margin extending on to the disc powdered with whitish ; the discoidal and submarginal spots as above, but pure white, larger, and much more prominent. Hindwing with the immediate base of the wing black; then a broad curved rich crimson area, commencing on the costal nervure and ending on the abdominal margin, crossed by the black veins, slightly sprinkled with black scales ; followed by a rather narrow highly irregular black band ; the outer half of the wing pale chrome-yellow, gradually darkening to a deeper chrome in the two posterior interspaces, the veins crossing this area black, from the first median to the second subcostal nervule gradually outwardly dilated and forming between those veins a broad black border. FEMALE differs from the male only in the wings being somewhat broader, forewing with the apex more rounded.
Apparently nearest to D. ninus, Wallace*, from Mount Ophir, Malacca, Malay Peninsula, but unknown to me except by the original description and figure, from which it differs in its larger size, both wings much broader, the forewing on both sides less heavily marked, two discoidal and seven submar- ginal spots only, no basal bluish patches whatever, the hindwing with no crimson basal patch on the upperside ; on the underside the crimson patch and the black band following it are twice as broad, thus reducing the chrome-yellow area in the discoidal cell by half. It is even more closely allied to D. crithoé, Boisduval, from Java, as identified by me, but may at once be known by the crimson band on the hindwing below being twice as broad, and with its outer edge evenly curved, instead. of straight, and no discal white patch on the upperside of the forewing.
Described from one male and two females in my collection.
* Trans. Ent, Soc, Lond., third series, vol. iv, p, 347, n. 9, pl, vii, fig, 1, male 1867).
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 53
13. DELIAS DATAMES, n. sp., Pl. L, Fig. 8, @. Hasirat: Battak Mountains, Sumatra.
EXPANSE: ¢, 2°83 inches,
DESCRIPTION: Mae. UPppErstpn, forewing dead chalky-white ; the costa as far as the subcostal nervure, the apex very broadly reaching almost to the end of the discoidal cell, and the outer margin decreasingly, black, bearing a series of five prominent small round white spots, of which the fourth from the costa is the smallest, the fifth the largest ; the disco-cellular nervules defined with black, Hindwing white, but not of as pure a shade as in the forewing, the black colour of the underside appearing to show through by transparency, especially at the base of the wing, and broadly along the outer margin, where it may almost be said that the wing has a broad outer diffused blackish border, more intense anteriorly. UNDERSIDE, forewing with the inner margin broadly white, eradually merging in the submedian interspace into the yellow colour of the disc and base ; the black apical and outer marginal areas much as on the upperside, bub extending narrowly into the outer end of the cell ; bearing six submarginal spots, of which the two anterior ones are clear yellow, the rest white ; there is also a second white spot in the lower discoidal interspace mid- way between the submarginal spot and the lower disco-cellular nervule ; the base and disc of the wing reaching anteriorly to the costal nervure clear yellow. Hindwing dull bronzy-black throughout except a small streak of clear yellow anterior to the costal nervure ; a submarginal series of six small clear yellow spots placed between the veins, the one in the submedian interspace geminated,
This species is perhaps one of the most remarkable in the genus. On the upperside it has somewhat the appearance of Huphina nama, Moore, which I have also from the mountains of Sumatra, and for which it would certainly pass without notice when flying. D. datames is very closely allied to D. momea, Boisduval, from Java, the male differing from the same sex of that species in the costa of the forewing being black up to the subcostal nervure instead of white, the black apical area of greater extent and reaching the inner angle, which it does not do in D. momea ; in the hindwing the black powdery outer border is unmarked, in D. momea it bears three white spots placed one in each interspace between the second median and second subcostal nervules ; on the underside of the forewing the yellow coloration is of a deeper shade, and is more extensive, in D, momea the white coloration of the inner margin extends outwardly as far as the second median interspace, thus greatly reducing the yellow area ; the two anterior spots of the submarginal series are yellow, in D. momea they are white ; in the latter species there are three discal white spots, in D, datames only one ; and in the hindwing there is no discal series of
54 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII,
streaks between the veins as there is in D. momea. I possess a single pair
only of D. momea. Described from a single male example in Dr. Martin’s collection,
Subfamily PAPILIONINA.
14. PAPILIO (Dalchina) SARPEDON, Linnaeus, Pl L, Fig. 11, ¢.
P. sarpedon, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ins., ed. x, p. 461, n. 14 (1758).
The very remarkable melanoid aberration or “ sport” of P. sarpedon figured was obtained on the Battak Mountains of Sumatra by Dr. Martin’s Battak collectors, The upperside of both wings is entirely black, save in the forewing the anterior spob of the broad macular discal blue-green band of normal P. sarpedon, and in the hindwing the four middle submarginal blue-green lunules of the series of six of the typical form, are alone present. The markings of the underside similarly differ, the broad discal blue-green band of both wings of the normal form being reduced to the anterior spot of the forewing only, the submarginal lunules of the hindwing as on the upperside, but all the crimson and deep black mark-
ings of the normal P. sarpedon are present.
This unique butterfly is in Dr, Martin’s collection.
15, PAPILIO (Pangerana) SYCORAX, Grose Smith, Pl. My Hic) Papilio sycorax, Grose Smith, Ent, Month. Mag., vol. xxi, p. 247 (1885) ; id Distant, Rhop., Malay., p. 468, n. 29, pl. xlu, fig. 10, female (1886); P. egertoni,
Distant, Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist., fifth series, vol. xvil, p. 251 (1886).
Hasrtar: Perak, Malay Peninsula (Distant and collection de Niceville); Sumatra (Grose Smith and collections Martin and de Nicéville).
Expanse: @, 6:0 inches. (My largest Q expands 7-0 inches).
Description: Mate. Uppmrsrpe, both wings very deep indigo-blue, slightly glossed with a greenish tint in some lights. Forewing obscurely streaked with greyish outwardly between the veins. Hindwing with the abdominal margin broadly twice folded over above ; the outer margin broadly dull olive-green, this area bearing anteriorly four rounded black spots, the ante- riot spot coalescing with the indigo-blue ground-colour, the posterior spot hidden beneath the fold ; a marginal series of five black spots. UNDERSIDE, both wings deep black. Forewing with the discoidal cell, as well as all the other interspaces, streaked with pale greenish-white. Hindiwing with the outer half pale greenish-white, this area sharply defined, just reaching the cell at the bifurcation of the third median and discoidal nervules, bearing inwardly five oval black spots, the uppermost with its anterior end coalescing with the eround-colour, and outwardly six round similar spots. ace posteriorly with long black hairs, anteriorly these hairs are pale buff-yellow, as also is the thorax anteriorly ; posteriorly the thorax, and the anterior third of the abdomen above is black, the posterior two-thirds of the abdomen above is dull olive-green,
NEW NORTH-EASTERN SUMATRA BUTTERFLIES. 55
bearing on each side a series of four round black spots; thorax beneath and anal valves black ; abdomen beneath bright chrome-yellow, the spiracles black.
It is a very remarkable fact that in certain groups of Papilios the females are far more often met with than the males, This is especially noticeable in the small group which contains P. sycorax, P. priapus, Boisduval, and P. hageni, Rogenhofer, all of which are remarkable in having the face and anterior portion of the thorax above pale buff-yellow. Even the Battaks have noticed this curious feature, and call the butterfly “ white-head.” P. sycoraz, as Mr. Grose Smith points out, is obviously close to P. priapus, from Java, but having only three female specimens of the latter, | am unable to make a comparison between the respective males of the two species. The females differ chiefly in the outer area of the hindwing on both sides of P. sycorax being greenish, in P. priapus buff-yellow.
Dr. Martin has only obtained three males of this fine species, two of which he has generously presented to me, together with four females, Mr. J. Wray, Jr., has also sent me a female from the Perak Hills.
16. PAPILIO (Pangerana) HAGENI, Rogenhofer, Pl. M, Fig. 2, 9.
Papilio hageni, Rogenhofer, Verh. zool.-bot. Gesellsch. Wien, vol. xxxix, p.1 (1889).
Haprrat : Sumatra (Rogenhofer and collections Martin and de Niceville).
EXPANSE : Q, 6°0 inches.
DESCRIPTION ; FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, forewing sordid-white, semi-trans- ‘parent, the base, costa, apex and outer margin fuscous, all the veins broadly marked with fuscous, the discoidal cell bearmg four longitudinal black streaks, the interspaces beyond the cell also bearing a black streak each. Hindwing shining black, the basal half tinted with dark olive-green ; the disc bears a large white area crossed by the black veins and by four large oval black spots, the anterior of these almost merged into the black ground-colour, the white area anterior to these spots pure white, posterior to them sprinkled with black scales, UNDERSIDE, forewing a little paler than above, similarly marked. Hindwing with the ground-colour throughout deep black, the white area a little larger, almost pure white throughout, the anterior oval black spot better defined, anteriorly only coalescing with the ground-colour, Head in front and thorax anteriorly pale buff-yellow, thorax and abdomen above black, thorax beneath black, abdomen beneath rich crimson, cross-banded with black, and bearing on each side a series of small black spots.
This very fine species is closely allied to P. priapus, Boisduval, and to P. sycorax, Grose Smith, and has the face and thorax above anteriorly of the same colour as in those species. Dr. Martin has given me the specimen figured ; he has a male (still nondescript) and other females in his collection, but the Species appears to be a very rare one,
56 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL AISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Prats K.
Fie, 1. Danais (Caduga) tytioides, n. sp., &, p. 37. oy) 2. ” 29 2, p. 37. Weis; Bulan (icscnnata) Cane, n. sp. &, p. 38. » 4 9 9 29 D) 2, p. 38. » 9. TLerinos teos, n. sp.. &, p. 41.
” 6. 9 » £5). 41. tiny ft Tahe darena, Felder, 6, p. 40.
» & Athyma assa, 0. sp., &, p. 42. Prats L.
Fig. 1. Huthalia (Nora) erana, n. sp., 3, p. 46.
” 2. ry) ” 9 ep) 2, Pp. 46.
3 3 (Tanaécia 2) elone, n. sp., &, p. 47. 4, Delias derceto, n. sp., &, p. 52. 5. Yasoda pitane, n. sp., &, p. 50. » 6. Cyrestis (Chersonesia) cyanee,n. sp.. &, p. 49. 7 39 99 99 99 g b) Pp: 49. 8. Delias datames, nu. sp., &, p. 53. a. » adanala,n. sp. 6, p. 51. » 10. Abisara ata, n. sp., do, p. 49. » Ll. Papilio Dalchina) sarpedon, Linneus, 4, p. 54. Pruate M. Fig. 1. Papilio (Pangerana) sycorax, Grose Smith, &, p. 54. rh ae a3 A hagent, Rogenhofer, 9, p. 55.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES, sutwe NATURAL HISTORY NOTES FROM H. M. 1. M. SURVEY STHAMER “INVESTIGATOR,” Commanver R. F. HOSKYN, R.N., COMMANDING.
Series II, No. 5. By D. Prain.
(Continued from Vol. VIL., page 486.)
Incomplete. NYOTAGINES.
122. IMlirabilis Jalapa Linn., Sp. Pl. 177; Roxb., Hort. Beng, 16; Watt, Dict., v., 258. The Marvel of Peru.
Akati ; cultivated, Meming ! Muinikoi ; cultivated, Pleming !
Native of America, but widely cultivated throughout tropical Asia on account of the supposed. purgative properties of its root, and as a garden plant.
123. Beerhaavia repens Linn : Hook. f., Flor, Brit. Ind., iv, 709.
var. typica. Boerhaavia repens Linn., Sp. Pl., 3.
Akati ; Mleming! Améni Hume !
A weed of fields, waysides and wasteplaces, cosmopolitan in tropical and sub- tropical countries. The more usual form of this species in India (var. pro- cumbens Hook. f., Hor. Brit. Ind., iv, 709 ; Boerhaavia procumbens, Banks in Roxb. Flor. Ind., i, 146) does not appear to occur in the Laccadives ; the present form is that characteristic of the drier parts of India, of Beluchistan, Arabia and North-East Africa.
var. diffusa Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., iv, 709. B. diffusa Linn., Sp. PL. 3.
Bitrapar ; on the shore, Hume / Anderut ; on the beach, Alcock ! Kadamum ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Hleming !
A littoral plant, cosmopolitan on tropical sea-shores, The sea-shore form differs so markedly in appearance from the usual inland forms and agrees so well with the description of var. diffusa Hook. f., that it might be convenient to restrict the varietal name “‘ diffusa” to it alone. It does not, however, deserve specific rank, for, as is pointed out in the Hora of British India, it is impossible by their morphological characters to draw a line between the various forms. Byen if recognised as a species, it could not be dealt with as 5. diffusa Linn. since the probability is that Linneus based his descriptions, at least in part, on the examination of inland specimens.
The ‘weed’ has probably been introduced unintentionally by man. The “ shore” form very probably owes its introduction to the agency of sea-birds, though it may have been introduced by ocean-currents.
8
58 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
124. WPisonia alba Spanoghe i Linnea, xv, 342; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., iv, 711.
Bitrapar ; Fleming !
A littoral species confined, if Spanoghe’s species be really distinct from all the Polynesian and Malayan ones, to the Andamans and Nicobars. ‘The species is rare in the Andamans beach forests (Kurz), but it is plentiful on the shores of Narcondam and on those of Batti Malv—one of the Nicobar group. The tree is only known in India and Ceylon as acultivated species; but as it does not occur on any of the other islands of the group, and as Bitrapar is an uninhabited island, the presence of the species in the sea-coast jungle here must be: independent of human interference. Its fruits may have been introduced by birds, since the glutinous lines along their angles admirably adapt them for this mode of dispersal ; but as the majority of the birds that visit Bitra must be sea-fowl, it is much more likely that the species has been introduced by means of ocean-currents. ‘Though not wild, it is frequently cultivated in Ceylon (¢.9., ab Colombo) near the sea—indeed away from the sea it refuses to grow—and, if the tree does not exist in Malaya, Ceylon, cultivated trees may be supposed to have yielded the fruits that have reached the Laccadives. One point, however, against. the species being confined, as an indigenous tree, to the Andamans is that the species has been long cultivated in India and Ceylon, and. it is therefore extremely unlikely that the plants originally introduced into India. came from that group: of islands, with which, save for a short period in the end of the last century, there was, till thirty years ago, practically no communication. It appears, indeed, as Sir Joseph Hooker suggests, to be little more than a form of the Polynesian
Pisonia inermis Forst. AMARANTACE.
125. Amerantus viridis Linn., Sp. Pl. (ed. 1), 1405 ; Roxb., Flor. Tnd., ii, 605; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., iv, 720.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
A weed of waste places, cosmopolitan in the tropics.
126. Zrua lanata Juss. i Ann. Mus. xi, 131; Hook. f., Flor: Brit. Ind., iv, 728. Achyranthes lanata Linn, Sp. Pl. 204; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 676.
Bitrapar; Hume! Kalpéni; Alcock / Kadamum ; very common, Meming £ Akati ; Fleming / Minikoi ; common, Yleming !
A weed. of waste places and also, as here, a common littoral species throughout tropical and subtropical Africa, the Mascarene Islands, Arabia and South-Hastern Asia ; here almost without doubt a sea-introduced species,
127. fchyranthes aspera Linn: Hook. f., Flor. Brit, Ind., iv, 730.
var. typica. Achyranthes aspera Linn., Sp. Pl, 204; Roxb., Flor. Ind.,; 1, 672,
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 09
Minikoi ; Fleming ! A weed of waste places, cosmopolitian in the tropics. var. porphyristachya Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., iv, 730. Achyranthes porphyristachya, Wall., Cat. 6925.
Bitrapar; Hume! Bangéro; Hume! Kalpéni; Alcock! Kiltan ; Fleming ! Kadamum ; Fleming ! Akati ; Mleming ! Minikoi; Fleming !
A weedy climber common in the littoral zone of the Indian and Malayan coasts ; also in the moist valleys of Sikkim, Chittagong, etc.
The common weed is only reported from Minikoi, from which island also (and from most of the others) comes the usual littoral condition which in habit simulates A. bidentata, Bl., but which has the fimbriate staminodes of A. aspera. While A. aspera is undoubtedly a plant introduced unintentionally by man, there is no doubt that here, as often elsewhere, A. porphyristachya is a sea- introduced plant.
POLYGONACEZ,
128. Polygonum barbatum Linn., Sp. Pl., 362; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v., 37. P. rivulare Koenig in Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 290.
Kalpéni ; Alcock !
In wet places throughout tropical Asia and Africa.
PIPERACEZ:,
129, Presr Bertie Linn., Sp. Pl. 28; Roxb., Flor. Ind.,i, 158; Hook, f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 85.
Akati ; Kilétn ; Kadamum ; Minikoi ; in all the islands cultivated and, as is the custom generally in Southern India, trained round the trunks and over the branches of the Agati (Sersbania grandiflora). ‘‘ This plant is an object of great care” (Mleming). )
Native of Malaya, where, and in the hotter parts of India and Ceylon, it is cultivated.
LAURINE,
130. Cassytha filiformis Linn., Sp. Pl. 35; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 314; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 188.
Kiltan ; on Wedelia scandens in the coast zone, Alcock! Kadamum ; on Pleurostylia Wightit, Fleming !
A leafless parasite, common on sea-shores, cosmopolitan in the tropics.
131, Hfernandia peltata Meissn. in DC., Prodr., xv., pt. i, 263 ; Hook.f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 188. Hernandia ovigera Gaertn., Fruct., 1., 193, t. 40, f. 8; Roxb., Mor. Ind., iii, 577, nec Linn.
Korat Hume! Minikoi ; Fleming ! -
60 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
A littoral species extending from the Mascarene Islands and Eastern Africa to Ceylon, the Andamans, Malaya, Australia and Polynesia; like Ochrosia borbonica this does not occur on the coast of India, though it is found as far north as Great Coco on the west and as Mergui on the east of the Andaman Sea.
Meissner (DC. Prodr., xv, pt. 1, 262—264) omits to quote, and the Hora of British India (v, 188) does not cite Roxburgh’s account of Hernandia ovigera (Flor. Ind., iii, 577-578), which his own diagnosis clearly shows to be a species different from Hernandia ovigera Linn. (Aman, Ac., iv, 125), founded on Rumf’s figure (Herb, Amboin., iii, 198, t. 123) of Arbor ovigera. Roxburgh notes the discrepancies, and explains them by depreciating Rumf’s drawing. In reality, however, Roxburgh’s description is a most vivid and accurate one, made from living specimens, of the species named by Meissner (DC. Prodr., xv, pt. i, 263) Hernandia peltata. Roxburgh cites Gaertner’s figure (Pract. 1, 193, t. 40, f. 8) asa “ very accurate” delineation of the fruit of this tree—an exceed- ingly just remark, which, however, Meissner has overlooked, for he quotes Gaertner’s description and figure as referring to Linnaeus’ species, though they differ very materially from both Rumf’s figure and Meissner’s own description of the fruit of Hernandia ovigera,
Hernandia peltata, the species now under review, is a purely old-world plant which has been treated by Linnaeus and, with the exceptions of Gaertner and Roxburgh, by all botanists subsequent to Linnaeus till the appearance of Meissner’s treatise (1864) as conspecific with the American Hernandia sonora ; even now Sir J. D. Hooker (Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 189) suspects that 4. peltata is no more than a variety of H. sonora. And the basis of the differentiation by both Gaertner and Roxburgh of the present plant from H. sonora does not lie in the differences between the two plants that Meissner has pointed out, but in the fact that Linnaeus included under H. sonora not merely the American tree to which Meissner would restrict that name, as well as the Ceylon tree which is undoubtedly H. peltata, but also—though doubifully and with the remark “ sed fructus alienus” (Amen. Ac., iv, 117)—the tree figured by Rumf (Herb. Amboin., ii, 257, t. $5) under the name Arbor regis. Believing, apparently, that Rumf’s Arbor regis was, a8 Linnaeus thought, a Hernandia—a belief perhaps partly just— but realising that it could scarcely be the tree he had before him, and seeing that it agreed so thoroughly with the figure and description of H. ovigera given by Gaertner, Roxburgh, not having in his possession specimens of the true #. ovigera, followed Gaertner in bestowing that name on this species. This course was hardly just to Rumf if Gaertner and Roxburgh believed Rumf’s figure to be correct, hardly just to themselves if they had any grounds for supposing it to be erro- neous, It now appears that Rumif’s figure is wonderfully reliable, for, besides his
* BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 61
figure from a tree in Amboina, there are before the writer Specimens of un- doubtedly this species from Java (Zollinger n, 2861, which, however, Zollinger hinself has identified with H. sonora) and specimens recently collected by the officers of the “ Eyeria” in Christmas Island, where H. ovigera occurs (Hemsl., Journ. Linn, Soc., xxv, 357) on the summit, elevation about 1,290 feet, a rather remarkable fact, since, according to Rumf, it occurs, like the other Hernandias, “ semper in arenoso solo circa litora.”*
As has been remarked, the belief of Linnaeus, and of Roxburgh that Rumf’s Arbor regis is a Hernandia is probably partly justified, for it is possible, from his account of the habitat of his tree—“ occurrit tam in litore inter leves ac humiles “stlvas ”’ (quite the situation affected by Hernandia peltata) “ quam in montibus “a altioribus silvis”’ (where to find H. peltata would be somewhat surprising) — that Rumf has included two trees in his description. His figure, moreover, bears out this, for some of the leaves are without, while others exhibit, a pair of glands where the petiole joins the leaf. The figure as a whole, however, suggests at once, as Lamarck (Hneye, Meth., iii, 128) a century ago pointed out, a Euphorbiaceous plant, while Rumf’s description of the fruit is altogether suitable to that of a Species of this order. The first authors to recognise Rumf’s Arbor regis, however, were Teysmann and Binnendyk, who described it as Capellenia moluccana (Nat. Tyds, Ned, Ind., xxix, 239), founding a new genus to accommodate it ; as, however, Capellenia does not differ generically from Endospermum, the tree has been re-described by Beccari as Endospermum moluccanum (Malesia, ii, 38) in his treatise Peante Ospitatrici, where another species from New Guinea (Endospermum Sormicarum Bece., Malesia, ii, 44, t. 2) is described, which shares with Rumf’s tree the character of sheltering a species of ant in its hollowed stems and branches, Teysmann and Binnendyk described their species from trees grown in the Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg; Beccari does not mention the habitat of the N ew Guinea species; in the Calcutta Herbarium there are, however, examples of another closely related species, with the same hollow branches, collected. in Sumatra by H. O. Forbes, which were obtained on the volcano of Kaba at 3,500 feet elevation, This fact, therefore, does not oppose, if it does not corroborate, the surmise that Rumf under Arbor regis has included. two trees, one found only on,
SER es ee I LY NCE) ere 1 ened
* Two parallel instances known to the writer of littoral species ascending to a con- siderable height are met with in N arcondam, where Morinda bracteata ascends to 2,300 feet and in Barren Island, where Zerminalia Catappa ascends 1,100 feet, The expla- nation of all three cases is doubtless the same ; these “ littoral” species being amongst the first to appear on the respective islands were able to spread unchecked from the shore to the summit of their peaks, and the invasion of inland species has not subsequently
been sufficiently great to compel them to retire completely from the unusual localities they had at first invaded,
62 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCTETY, Vol. VIII.
the coast. (Hernandia peltata) and one found inland and on the mountains (Endospermum moluccanum). EUPHORBIACES.
132. Euphorbia Atoto Forst., Prodr. n. 207; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 248.
Améni ; Hume!
A littoral species ; seashores of India, Malaya, N. Australia and Polynesia.
1388. Buphorbia hypericifolia Linn., Hort. Cliff. 198 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 249. #. parviflora Linn., Syst. Veg. (ed.x), ii, 1047 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 472. .
Kadamum ; Fleming! Kiltan ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming /
A weed of waste places and fields, almost cosmopolitan ; not occurring in Australia or in Polynesia.
134. Euphorbia pilulifera Linon., Ameen. Acad., ili, 114; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 250. &. hirta Linn. Ameen. Acad., iii, 114; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii. 472.
Anderut ; Alcock! Kadamum ; Hume! Fleming! Kailtan ; Alcock ! Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming /
A weed. of cultivation, cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical countries.
135. Euphorbia thymifolia Burm., Flor. Ind. 2; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 473 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 252.
Minikoi ; Hleming !
A weed almost cosmopolitan in tropical countries, not found in Australia.
136. PHynianrHus Emepuica Linn., Sp. Pl. 982; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 671 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 289. The Amila.
Améni ; cultivated, Hume.
Distributed, wild or cultivated, throughout South-Eastern Asia; here an in- tentionally introduced plant.
137, Phyllanthus maderaspatensis Linn., Sp. Pl. 982 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 654 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 292. P. obcordatus Willd., Enum. Hort. Berol., Suppl., 65 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 656.
Améni ; Hume! Anderut ; Alcock ! Bitrapar ; Fleming! Kailtan ; Mleming ! Kadamum ; Mleming ! Minikoi ; leming !
A weed of dry places and fields throughont tropical Africa, Asia and Aus- tralia, probably unintentionally introduced by man even into the island of Bitra, which, though not inhabited, is regularly visited.
138. Phyllanthus Urinaria Linn., Sp. Pl. 982; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 660; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 298.
Kalpéni ; Alcock ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A cosmopolitan tropical weed.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 63
139, Phyllanthus Niruri Iinn., Sp. Pl. 981; Roxb., Flor. Ind. ii, 659 ; Hook, f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 298.
Anderut ; Alcock ! Akati; Fleming! Kadamum ; Fleming! Kiltan : Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A weed of cultivation almost cosmopolitan in the tropics, not occurring in Australia,
140, Phyllanthus rotundifolius Klem mm Willd, Sp. PL, iv, 584 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 299.
Kiltan ; Fleming !
A weed of cultivation distributed throughout tropical Africa, Arabia, Southern India and. Ceylon,
141, PHYLLANTHUS DISTICHUS Muell.-Arg. in DC., Prodr., xv, pt. ii, 413; Hook, f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 804. P. longifolius Jacq., Hort. Schoenb., ii, 36, f. 194 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iti, 672. Cicca disticha Linn., Mantiss. 124.
Minikoi ; cultivated, Fleming.
In gardens throughout Malaya, India and the Mascarene Islands,
142, Claoxylon Mercurialis Thwaites, Enum, 271; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 412. TZragia Mercurialis Linn., Sp. Pl. (ed. ii) 1391 (in parte); Roxb., Flor, Ind., in, 576. Mercurialis alternifolia Desv. in Lamk, Encyc. Meth., iv, 120. Acalypha Mercurialis A, Juss., Euphorb, Tent. 46. Micrococca Mercurialis Benth. im Hook., Niger Flora 503. Microstachys mercurialis Dalz. and Gibs., Bomb. Flor. 227.
Akati; Fleming! Bitrapar; Fleming! Kadamum ; Mleming! Kiltan ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A tropical weed distributed throughout Africa, Arabia and India ; there are also specimens at Calcutta from the Malay Peninsula. JMercurialis alternifolia Desy. is not the same plant as Mercurialis alternifolia Hochst., Un. It., which is an Acalypha (A. Hochstetteri Ivell.-Arg.).
143. Acalypha indica Linn., Sp. Pl. 1003; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 675; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v., 416.
Akati; Fleming! Kadamum ; Mleming! Minikoi ; Meming !
A weed of cultivation common in tropical Africa and §.-E. Asia.
144. Acalypha fallax Muell.-Arg. i Linnea, xxxiv, 43 ; Hook, f,, Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 416. A. indica Prain, Laccad, List. 7, nec Linn,
Anderut ; Alcock ! Akati ; Flenung ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A weed of cultivation confined to South-Eastern Asia.
145. Ricrnus communis Linn., Sp. Pl. 1007; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 689; Hook. f., Flor. Brit, Ind, v., 457. The Castor-oil Plant; vernac. “ wndel ” (Robinson).
64 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Kiltaén ; cultivated, Hume, Fleming! Anderut; cultivated, Alcock. Kadamum; Fleming! Améni; cultivated for its oil, Robinson. Bitrapar ; growing near the centre of the island, Meming ! Minikoi ; cultivated and a very common escape, Hleming !
A native of Africa, cultivated generally in the tropics for its oil, but readily escaping and becoming naturalised, its presence in the uninhabited island. of Bitra being an excellent instance of the readiness with which it runs wild. © It is noteworthy that it was not present in Bitra when Mr, Hume visited . that island in 1875.
URTICACE,
146. Ficus BENGALENSIS Linn., Hort. Cliff. 471,n. 4; King im Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 499. #. indica Linn., Amoen, Acad, (ed. ili), i, 27, n. 6; Roxb., Flor. Ind., 11, 539. The Banyan.
Améni ; planted, Hwme. Kadamum ; four trees seen in the neighbourhood of some deserted huts, from their arrangement in a row evidently planted, Fleming. Minikoi ; planted, Fleming.
Planted generally throughout India, wild on the lower slopes of the Himalayas and of the Deccan hills.
147, Ficus retusa Linn., Mantiss. 129; King im Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 511. F. Benjamina Willd., Sp. Pl., iv, 1148 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 550 nec Linn.
var. nitida King, Ficus, 50; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 511. F. mitida Thunbg, Ficus 14.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
A large tree common throughout Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and extending to New Caledonia. Mr. Fleming does not note if the tree be planted in Minikoi. It is possible that it may be, but as its figs are a favourite food with many of the migratory fruit-pigeons, there is no reason why it should not be a “ wild” bird-introduced species.
148. ARTocarPuS rncIsA Forst., Pl. Hscul. 23; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iti, 527; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 5389 ; Watt, Dict.,i,330. The Bread- Frut Tree.
Kiltén ; does not thrive well, Robinson; not much appreciated, Hume ; Alcock. Améni; grows most luxuriantly, Robinson, Hume. Anderut ; culti- vated largely, Alcock. Akati; only one tree, in a garden, Fleming ! Minikoi ; cultivated, Mleming /
A native of Polynesia and Eastern Malaya, occasionally cultivated in the hotter parts of India, ‘The Laccadive Archipelago must be near the northern
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 65
limit of its successful cultivation, a fact that is corroborated by the evidence given above of the want of success, and the small extent, of its cultivation in important islands like Kiltén and. Akati.
149, ARTocaRPUS INTEGRIFOLIA Linn. f., Suppl. 412; Roxb., Flor. TInd., ti, 522 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit, Ind., v, 541 ; Watt, Dict.,i, 330. The Jack-frut.
Anderut ; a stately-looking tree, with dark green foliage not unlike the broad-leafed elm, Waod.
Dr. King, to whose attention the passage in Lieut. Wood’s paper has been brought, suggests that the notice refers most probably to the Jack. 'The tree is generally cultivated throughout the hotter parts of India and Indo-China and throughout Malaya ; it is said by Beddome to be truly wild in the Western Ghats above the Malabar Coast. That its cultivation should not have spread in the Laccadives is not at all surprising; doubtless the islanders generally view the Jack, as those of Kiltan, according to Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, iv, 437), regard the Bread-fruit : trees that are all very well in their way, but consider- ing that, instead of fruiting all the year round like the coco-nut, they all flower and fruit together, and their fruiting season lasts at the outside only two months out of twelve, they are hardly worth the trouble of propagating.
150. Pouzolzia indica Gaud. : Wedd. 7m DC. Prodr., xvi, pt. i, 220 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., v, 581. Urtica suffruticosa Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, os4,
var. typica. P. indica Gaud. in Freycinet, Voy., Bot. 503.
Kalpéni ; Alcock! Kiltan ; Fleming ! Akati; Fleming } Kadamum ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming +
A weed of cultivation common throughout tropical and subtropical Eastern and South-Eastern Asia.
var. alienata Wedd. in DC. Prodr., xvi, pt. i, 221. P. alienata Gand. om Freycinet, Voy., Bot. 503, Minikoi ; Mleming ! A common Indian form of the same weed.
REonocotyledones. ScITAMINEZ.
151. Musa Saprentum Linn., Syst. Veg. (ed. x), ii, 1303; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 663 ; Watt, Dict. v, 290. 'The Plantain.
Anderut ; cultivated, Wood, Améni; cultivated, Robinson. Kiltan ; cultivated, Hume. Kadamum ; four plants seen near some deserted huts, evidently planted, Fleming. Minikoi ; cultivated, Fleming.
9
66 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. Viii.
AMARYLLIDEZ.
152. Pancratium zeylanicum Linn., Sp, Pl. 290; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 124 ; Hook. f., Flor. Brit. Ind., vi, 285.
Minikoi ; Fleming.
India, Ceylon, Malaya.
153, Agave vivipara Linn., Sp, Pl, 823, A. Cantula Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 1€7 ; Watt, Dict., i, 148. The Bastard American Aloe,
Anderut ; cultivated, Alcock, Kiltan ; introduced from the mainland and erows well, Meming.
A native of America, cultivated and naturalised in most warm countries,
TACCACEA,
154, TaccA PINNATIFIDA Forst., Plant. Escul. 59 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 172. The South-Sea Taro ; vernac, “ teerny,” Robinson,
Anderut ; cultivated, Wood, Alcock. Chitlac ; cultivated, Robinson. Akati ; cultivated, Fleming ! Minikoi ; cultivated, Mleming !
A littoral species common on South-Hastern Asiatic and Polynesian coasts, but also extending inland either asa wild or cultivated species. Though a very common species on the Andaman coasts, the plant is here only found as a cultivated one.
DIOSCcOREACEZ,
155. Dioscorea bulbifera Linn., Sp. Pl. 1033. Wild Yam.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
A common species in a wild state throughout India, Indo-China, and Malaya; possibly conspecific with the next. Mr. Fleming does not note if itisa cultivated or a wild species. It is sometimes cultivated, and beth the root and leaf-tubers are eaten. The latter are also in Ceylon used. as a fish-bait,
156. Droscorea sativa Linn., Sp. Pl. 1033; Watt, Dict., iii, 183, The Garden Yom.
Améni ; cultivated, Robinson, Hume. Cultivated generally in the tropics, native country unknown, There are no specimens either in Mr, Hume’s or in Dr. Alcock’s collection, and it is, therefore, not impossible that it is not D, sativa but D, bulbifera that is grown in Améni.
LILIACEZ.
157. Gloriosa superba Linn., Sp. Pl. 305 ; Roxb., Flor, Ind., ii, 148,
Anderut ; plentiful, Alcock /
Wild throughout South-Eastern Asia, but also often cultivated as an orna- mental plant, and on account of the poisonous properties reputed to reside in its
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 67
roots. It is not cultivated, however, in Anderut, and as it is a common littoral species throughout the Andamans and Nicobars, it is here quite possibly a sea- introduced species.
CoMMELYNE,
158. neilema ovalifolium Hook. f., ee C. B. Clarke im DC. Monogr, Phan., iii, 218.
Minikoi ; Mleming !
A herbaceous weed of jungles and grassy places confined to Southern India.
159. Cyanotis cristata Roem. & Schult., Syst., vii, 1150. Comme- tina cristata Linn., Sp. Pl. 42. Zradescantia imbricata Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 120.
Kadamum ; Fleming ! Kiltén ; in grass along with Leucas aspera, Fleming ! Minikoi ; on ground and also epiphytic on Cocos nucifera, Fleming !
A weed of grassy places in the Mascarene Islands, India and Malaya.
PaLMEA,
160. ARrzca Catecnu Linn., Sp. Pl. 1189 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 615 ; Watt, Dict., i, 291. The Betel-nut Palm.
Améni; cultivated, Robinson, Hume. Anderut ; cultivated, Wood, Alcock. Kiltan ; does not thrive, Robison. Minikoi ; cultivated, Fleming.
Cultivated in tropical countries. ,
161. Cocos nuciFERA Linn., Sp. Pl. 1188; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iti, 614. The Coco-nut Palin.
Améni; Robinson, Hume. Anderut ; Wood, Alcock, Akati; Mleming. Bangaro ; Hume. Bitrapar; Robinson, Hume, Chitlac ; of slow growth and not productive, Robinson. Kadamum ; Robinson, Hume, Fleming. Kalpéni, Alcock. Kiltan ; Robinson, Hume, Alcock, Fleming. Korati ; Hume, Minikoi ; Hleming.
Lieut. Wood’s list gives the coco-nut as present on all the islands except Kalpéni Féti and Akati Féti, which are mentioned as mere sand-banks, but the send-banks of Pirmalla and Pittiand the coral islets on Cherbaniani and—if, indeed, there are islets there—on Cheriapani reefs are quite devoid of vegetation, and if visited at all by the islanders are visited for the purposes of fishing or ege- collecting, not for coco-nuts and coir. Bitra, however, which is uninhabited ,has coco-nuts and is visited on account of these by people from the northern islands, The coco-nuts there, from their position as described by Robinson and Hume and from the accounts of the people, are evidently only planted. Bangéro and (apparently) Tangdro, two uninhabited islands on the Akati reef, have coco-nuts clearly, from Hume’s account of the former, sea-introduced and not planted. Whether there are coco-nuts on Suheli is not clear; according to Wood’s list,
68 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
they occur, but the people misinformed him concerning so many of the other islands, that till there is direct evidence, the point must remain doubtful.
The question whether the appearance of the coco-nut in this archipelago preceded that of man, or if the first settlers there did not rather take the coco-nut with them, is one that it is somewhat difficult to answer. 'The species is pretty certainly indigenous in the Malay countries and, perhaps, Polynesia, and seems to have spread thence to India, the Mascarene Islands and Africa. It occurs also in America, but the question—which has been seriously discussed—as to whether it found its way to the New World from the Old or vice versa, has not yet been satisfactorily answered. The introduction of the coco- nut into Ceylon at all events has been in all probability a deliberate act, and, as M. de Candolle reminds us (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 435), at a period so recent as to be almost historical. That the geographical extension of the tree is largely due to human agency does not admit of question, but that it has been in every place where it occurs intentionally introduced, it is neither possible nor necessary to believe. Its fruits are highly capable of ocean-distribution and form a constant feature of ocean-drifts on tropical shores, and it is one of the earliest Species to appear on newly emerged coral or volcanic tropical islands,
Ag regards the Laccadives, if man did not first settle there on account of coco-nut trees being already present, it is difficult to conceive what he went there for ; the surface is not adequate, nor are the conditions favourable for extensive cereal or pulse cultivation, and as for a certain period of the year the people have to take their boats away from the islands to places of safety on the Malabar Coast, it is clear that fishing could never have been a general or con- stant industry among them. On the other hand, the coco-nut is in the strictest sense a cultivated species on all the inhabited islands, and is a planted species even in Bitra which, on account of its want of a water-supply, is only a visited island ; and though in Bangdro it is not cultivated or planted, this island may have only been stocked by nuts from Akati, the main island on the same atoll, subsequently to a deliberate introduction of the species into Akati itself.
Still the state of affairs in Bangdro proves that the tree here can be, at least locally, sea-dispersed ; and taking into account the uninvitine ap- pearance that the islands must offer, were they destitute of coco-nuts, one cannot but think it probable that the species reached the archipelago independently of human agency and prior to human settlement, while the necessity for constant renewal and, as the population increased, for planting to the greatest advantage, has insured that now in all the inhabited islands none but cultivated trees are to be found.
In most of the islands it is deemed necessary to raise the seedling coco-nuts with care and attention till they are a year old, when they are transplanted and
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 69
watered for a few weeks till they become firmly established. After this the young trees are left entirely to themselves, and are neither watered nor manured ; they come into bearing in Kiltan in from 8 to 10 years, and produce fruit so vigorously and. plentifully that it is sometimes necessary to support the luxuriant growth of nuts artificially *; in this island, moreover, the preliminary attention to seedlings is not required.
In some of the other islands, as in Chitlac, where the soil is much poorer, the trees do not come into bearing till they are 15 to 20 years old, each tree at best producing only about 50 nuts per annum as against 80 to 85 nuts a year in Kiltin, In Kadamum, too, backward though the cultivation in that island is, the average per annum is about 80 nuts per tree; in Améni, where the cultivation is almost as extensive asin Kiltsin, the average is only about 60 nuts a year from each tree. These figures are given. by Robinson, after care- ful and prolonged enquiry, as representing the yield in 1844 and 1845; Hume gives the average all over for the four British islands in 1875 at 80 nuts per tree per annum}t—doubtless rather a high general estimate, though probably representing the yield of what the people in any of the islands would themselves consider a good tree. Robinson thinks that 60 to 70 nuts would be a pretty fair general average for the whole of these islands, and this is likely to be nearer the truth than the higher estimate. 'The islanders try to plant only /irst class trees, and they aim at obtaining such as will come into full bearing in about 10 years, throwing out every month after that age is reached a fruiting-spike bearing 15 to 20 nuts, and so yielding 180 to 250 nuts a year, and going on bearing at this rate till they are 60 years old. They often do go on bearing, it is said, till they are 70 or 80 years of age, and some are believed by the people to be more than a century old, But a tree that produces a fruiting-spike every month is quite a rarity ; 9 to 10 fruiting branches are all that can be hoped for in twelve months, and from accidents and casualties among the nuts, 8 to 10 a Spike is a very high average of nuts. Indeed, it is only trees with an eastern exposure and trees growing in the Aa in the centre of the islands that yield so highly ; those with a south-westerly exposure or those on the drier parts of the best islands yield as poorly as those of Chitlac, where the conditions, as a whole, are unfavourable,
There is very little exportation of coco-nuts from the islands, much the greater portion of the crop being required for home consumption. As, more- over, the great product of the islands is coir, not coco-nuts, an immense propor- tion. of the crop is gathered before the nuts are perfectly ripe and before the kernel is in the best condition for yielding oil. If allowed to remain on the
* Robinson, Madras Journal, n. s, xiv, 24, t ‘Stray Feathers,” iv, 410.
70 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
tree for twelve or thirteen months, which is the time required for perfect ripening, the husk becomes hard and woody and the coir difficult to separate from the woody particles, requiring longer soaking in its preparation, which darkens its colour and spoils it for the market ; being harder and coarser, too, it becomes, though not weaker than the best coir ought to be, much more diffi- cult to twist. If, on the other hand, the nuts are gathered too soon, the coir obtained, though excellent in colour and easy to manipulate, is too weak for yarn, though quite good for minor purposes, such asa stuffing material for ma xttresses.
The proper age of nuts for coir-making is ten months; at the end of the tenth month they are cut and husked, the husks being thrown into soaking-pits, where they are left for a year. These soaking-pits are simply holes in the sand on the lagoon-shore of the various islands, in which the husks are buried and covered over by heaps of coral-blocks to protect them from the ripple of the waves. After twelve months’ soaking the husks are taken from the pits and the coir is separated from the refuse of the husk by beating. If taken out earlier, it is very difficult to rid the coir of impurities and woody particles; if left longer, the fibre is found to be weakened. In Améni, where, as has been said, the island occupies the whole lagoon-space, and there is, therefore, no protected seashore suitable for coir-soaking, the husks have to be buried in pits dug through the coral-crust within the body of the island. ‘The coir is here, there- fore, soaked in fresh, instead of salt water, one result of which is that the Améni coir is weaker than that produced in the other islands; this is, no doubt, the result of the action of some of the products of decomposition in the water of these tanks, A further effect of this method of soaking is a discolouration of the fibre, for the water in the tanks never being changed becomes foul and dark- coloured by the decaying vegetable matter, and imparts this tinge to the coir. The two effects taken together, or perhaps rather the second, used by the buyer as an index of the first, renders Améni coir a less marketable product than the coir of the other islands and reduces it to the level of most of the coir manufactured on the Malabar Coast itself, which is practically all made in this way, protected seashores on which to bury the husks being exceedingly rare except within the lagoons of coral islands.
In separating the coir after the beating by sticks to break up the adhesion and remove impurities, the coir is hand-rubbed, chiefly by the women, to remove the woody tissue between the fibres. It is then rolled into loose pads as thick as one’s finger by the palms of the hands before being twisted into yarn, of which two strands are made at once.*
* J. Shortt, F.L.8, ; Monograph of the Coco-nut-palm, p. 16, Madras, 1888.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 71
The yield of fibre is estimated by Robinson at one pound of coir from each 10 nuts, giving 35 fathoms of yam. He adds* that “2 Ibs. of such yarn, “measuring from 70 to 75 fathoms, are made up into soodies, of which there are “fourteen to a bundle, averaging about a maund of 28 Ibs. A Mangalore candy “of 560 lbs, will, therefore, be the produce of 5,600 nuts, and should contain “ about 20,000 fathoms of yarn.”
In contrast with this yield, Robinson mentions that it takes only three of the large coarse coast nuts to yield a pound of coir, but that this coir will only produce 22 fathoms. A ton of Laccadive coir will thus produce 80,000 fathoms of yarn as against 50,000 yielded by a ton of Malabar coir,
By Mr. Robinson’s figures, it will take over 20,000 nuts (22,400) to yield a ton of coir, which should produce 784,000 fathoms of yarn. Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, iv, 440) says it takes about 80,000 nuts to yield a ton of coir,
Tt is clear from what hag been written regarding the Laccadives that they yield by far the best coir produced in India, and it will be equally evident from what has been said here that their superiority lies altogether in the facilities for Sea-soaking offered by their lagoons, Yet from all the information that a consultation of the ordinary trade returns will yield, an enquirer into them might, as Watt remarks,t conclude that the Laccadives export no coir, In trade returns the Laccadive coir from British Islands is given along with that from the Malabar Coast, and in European markets the best Malabar or Indian coir is spoken of as Cochin coir. As a matter of fact, little coir comes from Cochin, and it does not present any features peculiar to itself or Superior to those of coir from other parts of Malabar. What the European merchant means by Cochin coir is pretty certainly Laccadive coir. Even when the coir is known to be from the Laccadives,some misunderstanding is produced by its being spoken of as Kiltan coir or Améni coir. As a matter of fact, Kiltén coir has not quite the local reputation of either Chitlac or Kadamum coir, whereas Améni coir is distinctly inferior to that produced in any of the other British islands, The application of the term Améni coir to the best qualities arises from two circumstances—the fact that the island of Améni is one of the largest and often gives its name Amendivi to the whole group, and that, till quite recently, the lower caste people of Kadamum, where excellent coir is produced, were in some degree subject to their higher caste neighbours of Améni, and were compelled to ship their produce to the mainland in Améni boats,
Besides coir manufacture, a certain amount of coarse sugar (jaggery) manu- facture is carried on, not at all extensively, however, in the British islands, since
* Robinson, Madras Journal, n. s., xiv, 16. Tt Dict. Econom, Products of India, ii, 421.
72 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VILL.
the higher prices given for their coir render its manufacture more profitable to the people. In the Cannanore Islands, where coir is under monopoly and the Cannanore Raj gives much poorer prices for that article than the inhabitants of the British islands obtain, large quantities of jaggery are produced both for home consumption and for export to the people on the British islands, the chief islands in which it is manufactured being, according to Robinson, those of Anderut and Korati,
PANDANEZ.
162. Pandanus odoratissimus Linn. f., Suppl. 424; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 738 ; Balf. f., Jour. Linn. Soc., xvii, 54.
Bangaro ; abundant, Hume. Kadamum ; very abundant, Hume. Améni ; Hume. Kiltan ; only a few plants, Hume. Kalpéni; Alcock. Minikoi ; Fe- ming ! a regular sea-fence of this plant surrounds the island, Hamilton.
A littoral species extending from the Indian Coasts to Malaya, Australia and Polynesia.
Tn the Laccadive Islands proper there is not, in densely peopled and carefully planted islands like Kiltan, more than the merest remnant of a Pandanus sea-fence left, though in uninhabited islands like Bangaro and in partially occupied ones like Kadamum, it is well represented. But, curiously enough, it is quite absent from the uninhabited island of Bitra, where also Cocos nucifera does not occur as a littoral and sea-introduced species. In Minikoi, however, where the island is fully occupied and carefully planted, the Pandanus sea-fence has been allowed to remain as a belt all round the island. ‘This belt of jungle harbours an immense number of rats (Mus rattus VAR. rufescens)*, which here, as in the other islands, prove very destructive to the coco-nut crop. Captain Wentworth Hamilton, Port Officer of Gopalpur, who commanded the 8. 8. ‘“ Martha Heathcote” during a recent official visit to Minikoi, informed thewriterin 1889 that the disturbances which led to the visit arose out of a Government order to cut down this jungle and, by removing their shelter, to render possible a systematic attempt to exterminate the rats. The populace objected most strongly to the order, on the ground that this belt of jungle is the abode of evil spirits that would be certain, were their domain invaded, to retaliate by bringing misfortune on the island. Minikoi, as has been already said, though Laccadive as to political connection, and as much Laccadive as Maldive as to situation, has a Maldive population ; there is no evidence of superstition So gross among the Mappila population of the other Laccadives; at all events, they do not appear to have any scruples about clearing away the Pan- danus belt.
* Hume, “ Stray Feathers,” iv, 433.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 73
AROIDEA.
163. Colocasia antiquorum Schott: Engler m DC., Monoer, Phanerog., ii, 491. var. typica. C. antiquorum Schott, Meletem. i, 18. <Arwm Colocasia Linn., Sp. Pl. 965; Roxb., Flor. Ind., iii, 494. The Kachu or Indian Taro.
Améni ; cultivated, Hume. Anderut ; cultivated, Alcock. Kalpéni ; both cultivated and wild, Alcock! Kiltaén; wild, Mleming. Kadamum; wild, Fleming. Akati ; wild, Fleming. Minikoi; wild, Fleming.
A native of India, cultivated in nearly all tropical and subtropical countries. There is little doubt that this has been intentionally introduced ; it receives, however, slight attention in any of the islands, and in nearly everyone of them it has established itself as a weed.
CYPERACEZE,
164. Cyperus hyalinus Vahl, Enum, ii, 329; Clarke, Ind. Cyperus 46.
Kadamum ; Fleming !
A very rare South Indian weed.
165. Cyperus polystachyus Rottb., Descr. et Ic. 39, t, 11, f.1; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 193 ; Clarke, Ind, Cyperus 51.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
A cosmopolitan tropical and subtropical weed, especially in islands and on sea-shores.
166. Cyperus compressus Linn., Sp. Pl. 46; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 194 ; Clarke, Ind. Cyperus 97.
Kalpéni ; Alcock /
A cosmopolitan tropical weed.
167, Cyperus pachyrrhizus Nees ex Boeck. im Linnea, xxxv, 545 ; Clarke, Ind. Cyperus 111.
Bitrapar ; Hume! Fleming! Kadamum ; Fleming! Bangaro ; Hume !
A littoral species, confined to the coasts of India, Mr. Clarke, however, in a letter to the writer, in which he has kindly criticised the former Laccadive List, states that in Dr, Trimen’s opinion the purely maritime C. pachyrrhizus cannot be specifically distinguished from C. conglomeratus (Rotth., Descr. et Tc,, 21, t. 15, £. 7 ; Clarke, Ind. Cyperus, 112), a plant occurring in the deserts of North-East Africa and South-West Asia (Nubia, Arabia, Syria, Socotra, Beluchistan).
168. Cyperus pennatus Lamk i Poir., Encyc, Meth., vii, 240 ; Clarke, Ind, Cyperus 194,
10
74 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Anderut ; Alcock 1 Kalpéni ; Alcock ! Akati ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A littoral and estuarine species, extending from the Mascarene Islands to India, Malaya and North Australia.
169. Cyperus dubius Rottb., Descr. et Ic. 20, t. 4, f.5; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 189 ; Clarke, Ind. Cyperus 197.
Minikoi ; Mleming !
A littoral species, extending from Indo- China and Malaya to India, Ceylon, the Mascarene Islands and the African Coast.
170. Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb., Descr. et Ic. 13, t. 4, f. 3.
Minikoi ; in the sward underneath the coat trees, Planing. !
Cosmopolitan in the tropics.
171. Fimbristylis diphylla Vahl. Enum., ii, 289. Scirpus miliaceus Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 227.
Kalpéni ; Alcock /
The solitary specimen is not a good one, and the identification is not absolute- ly certain, ‘The plant is, however, not any of the other Cyperacec enumerated.
Common on seashores and in wet places throughout the tropics.
GRAMINEZ,
172. Panicum sanguinale Linn., Sp. Pl. 57. var. ciliare. LP. ciliare Retz., Obs., iv, 16 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i., 293.
Akati ; dwarfed specimens, Fleming ! Minikoi ; very abundant, Fleming /
Cosmopolitan in the tropics ; the variety present here seems, however, confined to the Eastern Hemisphere.
173. Oplismenus Burmanni Beauv., Agrost., 54. Panicum Bur- manni Retz., Obs., tii, 10 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., 1, 298.
Akati ; ieweny ! Kadamum ; Fleming! Kiltén; HMeming ! Minikoi ; Fleming ! Everywhere abundant, as is the next species.
Cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical countries.
174. Oplismenus compositus Roem. & Schult., Syst., ii, 484. Panicum compositum Linn., Sp. Pl, 57. P. lanceolatum Roxb, Flor. Ind., i, 294.
Améni; Hume! Akati; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
Widely distributed throughout the tropics of the old world.
175. Setaria verticillata Beauv., Agrost., 51. Panicum verticil- latum Linn., Sp. Pl. (ed. ii) 82 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind, i, 301.
Améni ; a crop, vernac. “ badag,” Robinson. Bangaro ; Hume / Kadamum ; Fleming ! Kiltén ; Fleming! If cultivated at the time of Mr. Robinson’s visit (1844), apparently not cultivated when Mr, Hume was at the Laccadives (1875) ; its presence in the uninhabited island of Bangéro indicates, moreover, that
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 75
here, as elsewhere, the species is one that readily becomes established as a weed.
Cosmopolitan in the tropics.
176. Thuarea sarmentosa Pers., Synops., i, 110.
Bangaro ; Hume! Kadamum ; Fleming! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A littoral species, extending from the shores of Polynesia to Malaya, the Andamans and Nicobars, Ceylon (Thwaites 0. P. 2260), the Laccadives, and the Mascarene Islands. As with a number of other littoral species exhibiting the same distribution, this has not yet been collected on the coast of the Indian mainland.
177. Spinifex squarrosus Linn., Mantiss., 300.
Bitrapar ; everywhere in huge patches inside the belt of Zpomea biloba, Hume ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A littoral species found on the Western Indian Coast from Canara (Thomson) to Malabar (Aheede) and on the east from Puri (Clarke) and Gopalpur (Prain) to Madras (Wight) and Ceylon (Thwaites). Besides extending to the Laccadives, it occurs in Java (Kurz), Siam (Schomburgk), and China (Hance). But in the Calcutta Herbarium there are no specimens from Burma, the Malay Peninsula, the Andamans or the Nicobars. The headquarters of the genus is Australia, where several species occur; and if this species has originally come from the south-east to India, it has apparently only reached the western, not the eastern, side of the Sea of Bengal, first perhaps reaching Ceylon, whence it has crept northward along both the coasts of the Indian Peninsula. Why it should not have become dispersed northward from Java, along the coasts of Sumatra, the Nicobars and Andamans to Burma, it is difficult to conceive.
178. Oryza sativa Linn., Sp. Pl, 833; Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 200 ; Watt, Dict., v, 498. The Rice crop.
Anderut ; a small quantity of rice is grown in the rainy season, not more than 15 or 20 days’ consumption, Wood.
Generally cultivated throughout the tropics ; probably originally a native of India, where it often occurs, as Roxburgh says he has himself seen it in the Circars, in a truly wild state, that is, mot as an escape from cultivation. It occurs thus, for example, in the Sunderbuns along with another species (Oryza coarctata Roxb., Flor. Ind., ii, 206), which is perfectly distinct from O. sativa in any of its forms, is never found anywhere else than in the Sunderbuns, and of which no use whatever is made.
The notice by Lieut, Wood is the only intimation of the Laccadive islanders cultivating the rice crop ; but though they do not apparently attempt to grow it now, there is no reason to suppose that Wood was misinformed or mistaken. For though Robinson does not mention rice as a crop in 1844-45—it will be
76 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, VIII.
noted that he did not visit Anderut then—he gives a circumstantial account of the cultivation of certain millets and pulses in Améni and Kadamum, but says that in Chitlac field-cultivation was then quite insignificant and that in Kiltan it had given way altogether before the planting of coco-nut trees. Writing thirty years later, Mr. Hume says* that “in former days a certain amount of “ millets used to be grown in all the islands; now, even in Améni, little or “none appears to be cultivated, and the people are wholly dependent for their “ supplies on the mainland, whence they bring, not only rice, but tobacco and “ salt, which, curiously enough, never seems to have been manufactured on the *‘ islands, the people being allowed to get duty-free salt from Goa.”
In Anderut, judging from Dr. Alcock’s brief notice of the island, there appears to be even to this day more cereal cultivation than in most of the other islands ; still he does not speak of rice as being grown, and says that the staple crop is ragi (Hleusine Coracana).
179. Saccharum oFFIoINARUM Linn., Sp. Pl 54; ney. Flor. Ind., i, 237.
Minikei ; cultivated, Mlemmyg.
Cultivated throughout the tropics.
180. Eschaemum ciliare Retz., Obs., vi, 36. JZ. tenellum Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 323.
Kalpéni; Alcock! Akati; Fleming! Bitrapar; Mleming! Kadamum ; Fleming ! Kiltan ; Fleming! Everywhere very plentiful.
Confined to China, India and Indo-China.
181. Ischaemum muticum Linn., Sp. Pl. 1049. JZ. repens, Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 323.
Kalpéni ; Alcock ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
Extends from 8. E. Asia to Australia and Western Polynesia ; is very common on the coast in the Andamans and Nicobars.
182. Andropogon contortus Linn., Sp. Pl. 1045; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 253.
Kiltan ; Alcock ! Kadamum ; very plentiful, Fleming /
A common grass of dry places, cosmopolitan in the tropics.
183. ANDROPOGON MURICATUS Retz. Obs., ii, 48; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 265 ; Watt, Dict., i, 245. The Ahus-khus grass,
Kiltan ; a little clump found growing near the mosque, Meming !
Cosmopolitan in the tropics ; here probably introduced. Haeckel (DC., Monogr: Phamerog., Vi., 542) identifies A. muricatus Retz. with A. squarrosus Linn, f., but omits to cite Roxburgh’s description of the Khus-khus grass or to gay whether
* “Stray Feathers,” iv, 441.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 17
in his opinion A. squarrosus is, or is not, the Khus-khus. There can, of course, be no possibility of doubt as to the grass intended by Roxburgh, though there may be some as to the identity of Roxburgh’s plant with that of Retzius.
184, SorGHUM VULGARE Pers., Synops-, i, 101. Andropogon Sorghum Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 269. The Sorghum, vernac. “ Jowa.”
Améni ; cultivated, Robinson. Kadamum ; cultivated, Robinson. Minikoi ; grows well, but very little cultivated, Fleming.
Cultivated throughout warm countries.
185. Apluda aristata Linn., Amoen. Acad., iv, 303; Roxb., Flor, Ind., i, 324.
Kadamum ; filling all the outskirts of the jungle, Home! Minikoi; very abundant, Hleming !
In woods and hedges throughout South-Eastern Asia.
186. Cynodon Dactylon Pers., Synops.,i, 85. Panicum Dactylon Linn., Sp. Pl. 58 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 289.
alpen: Alcock !
Cosmopolitan in the tropics. The plant from Bangaro, referred with clone to this species by Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, iv 452), is in reality Thuarea sarmentosa.
187. HEleusine Zgyptiaca Pers., Synops. i, 82; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 344.
Améni ; Hume! Kadamum ; Fleming !
A cosmopolitan tropical weed of cultivation.
188. ELEUSINE CoRACANA Gaertn., Fruct., i, 8, t. 1, f. 11; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 843 ; Watt, Dict., iii, 237. The Ragi crop; the Marua Millet.
Améni; Robinson. Anderut; Alcock. Kadamum ; Robinson. Kalpéni ; Alcock ! Minikoi ; Fleming !
A field crop in India, Egypt and Japan.
189. EHleusine indica Gaertn., Fruct.,i, 8 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 345.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
A cosmopolitan tropical species, occurring as a weed in waste places and on waysides,
190. Eragrostis plumosa Steud., Gram., i, 266. #. tenella Trin. var. plumosa Trin., Act. Petrop, vi, i, 898. Poa slumosa Retz, Obs., iv, 20 ; Roxb., Flor. Ind., i, 327. P. tenella Linn, VaR, Spreng., Syst. Veg., a BLS
VAR. typica,
Kalpéni ; Alcock ! Akati ; Fleming ! Kadamum ; Fleming ! Kultén ; Flem- ing! Minikoi ; Fleming /
VAR, panculis fastiquatis,
78 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII.
Akati; Fleming! Kadamum ; Fleming! Minikoi ; Fleming ! —
A common grass in Indian fields and waste places.
191. Lepturus repens R. Br., Prodr. Flor. Noy. Holl., i, 207.
Bangéro ; Hume! Bitrapar ; Fleming ! Minikoi ; Fleming /
A littoral species, extending from Polynesia and Australia fo Ceylon, the Laccadives and the Mascarene Islands.
CRYPTOGAMIA.
LYCOPODIACEA.
192, Psilotum triquetrum Swartz, Syn. Fil, 117; Baker, Fern Allies, 30.
Minikoi ; Fleming !
Cosmopolitan in the tropics.
FILICES.
193. Nephrodium molle Desv., Mem. Soc. Linn., vi, 258 ; Bedd., Ferns of Brit. Ind., 277. Polypodium parasiticum Linn., Sp. Pl. (ed. ii) 1551. P. proliferum Roxb., Flor. Ind. (ed, Clarke), 752.
Anderut ; Alcock !
Cosmopolitan in the tropics.
194. IWephrolepis cordifolia Presl., Tent. Pterid. 79; Bedd., Ferns of Brit. Ind., 282. Polypodium cordifolium Linn., Sp. Pl. (ed. ii) 1549.
Anderut ; Alcock /
‘Cosmopolitan in the tropics.
CHARACEAK,
195. Chara sp., Alcock, Adm. Rep. Marine Survey, 1891-92, p. 10.
Akati ; in fresh-water tanks, Alcock.
Unfortunately, no specimens were collected. It is not at all improbable that Zanichellia palustris (Naiadacece) may be found associated with Chara in this place ; it often is in similar localities.
MUSCTI.
196. Calymperes Dozyanum Mitt. in Journ. Linn. Soc., iii, Suppl. 42. ©. mollucense Dozy & Molk, Bryol. Jay., i, 47, t. 387, nec Schwaegr.
Minikoi ; Alcock /
Extends from Samoa and the Admiralty Islands to the Philippines, Java, the Andamans (Great Coco Island, where it is very plentiful), Ceylon, India (deste Mitten /.c.) and Minikoi, where it is plentiful. It is the only moss reported
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. » ie,
from the island ; Dr. Alcock, writing from the “ Investigator,” remarks .on the presence of so much moss and fungus at Minikoi as compared with the other islands, where there are hardly any fungi and there is apparently no moss, On this point he adds :—“ But the island is near the equatorial belt of condensation.”
LICHENES. (N. O. LicHENACEI.)
197. Physcia leucomela Michx, Flor. Bor. Am., ii, 356 ; Nyland., Synops. Lich., i, 414.
Minikoi ; on coco-nut trees, Alcock !
Cosmopolitan in tropical and temperate regions on tree trunks.
198. Physcia obscura Fries, Lich. Hur., 84; Nyland., Synops. Lich., i, 427. Coe
Minikoi ; on coco-nut trees, Alcock !
Cosmopolitan on trees and rocks,
FUNGI. (N. O. HyMENOMYCETES.)
199. Pleurotus cuneatus G. Massée, sp. mov. pileo carnosulo, tenui, exacte laterali, flabelliformi postice in stipitem brevissimum producto, glabro, albo ; lamellis decurrentibus, divergentibus, subconfertis, angustis, albis, siccitate pallide ochraceis ; sporis ellipsoideis.
Minikoi ; on coco-nut trees, Alcock /
Nearest to Plewrotus scabrellus, Berk.
200. Pleurotus tenuissimus Jungh., Enum. Fung. Jay.
Minikoi ; on dead screw-pines, Alcock !
Java.
201. Schizophyllum commune Fries, Syst. Mycol., i, 330.
Kiltan ; on rotten branches of Ricinus communis, Fleming ! -
Cosmopolitan,
202. Polyporus sanguineus Fries, Epicris. 404,
Kadamum ; on decayed coco-nut stumps, Fleming! Minikoi; on dead branches of screw-pine, Alcock /
Cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical countries.
208. Polyporus igniarius Fries, Hymen. Eur., 559,
Minikoi ; Alcock /
Cosmopolitan, or nearly so.
204, Trametes Muelleri Berk., Jour. Linn, Soc., x, 320.
Minikoi ; Alcock /
Australia, Brazil.
80 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, VIII.
205. Hirneola polytricha Mont., Syllog. Gen. & Sp. Pl. Crypt., 181. Minikoi ; “ from a wooden house-post,” Alcock / Almost cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical countries.
ALG Ai,
206. IWostoc verrucosum Vauch., Conf., 225.
Minikoi ; covering the ground in damp places, Alcock !
Cosmopolitan.
There are also some Marine Alege, at least in Minikoi on the reefs of the weather-side of the island (Alcock, Adm. Rep., Marine Survey, 1891-92) ; of these no specimens were collected.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE FLORA.
The list given above includes 206 species, representing 156 genera and 61. natural orders ; 191 of the species are Phanerogams and only 15 are Crypto- gams, giving a proportion of flowering to flowerless plants of about thirteen to one; the percentages are :—
Phanerogams, 93° °/, ; Cryptogams, 7° °/).
Of the Phanerogams 150 are Dicots and 41 are Monocots, the proportion here
being nearly four to one ; the percentages are :— Dicotyledons, 78°5 °/, 3 Monocotyledons, 21°5 °/,.
Only three vascular cryptogams have been found in the Archipelago, with only one moss, while at least one species of Chara occurs ; two-thirds of the Cryptogams obtained are Fungi or Lichens. It ought not to be concluded, because one of Fungi enumerated has as yet been reported only from Minikoi that it is truly endemic in that island ; in all probability it will yet be found to occur elsewhere. ‘The Marine Algee mentioned above will in all probability be found when they are at length collected to belong to some of the commoner Indian Ocean forms.
A synoptic view of the Flora is given in the table which follows :—
81
———
CO aa es tes seroodg
OG ieee eres VMs)
|__$$—$—$_$_—- —
19
sooeeSTadO “LVN
seovosrTVLOT,
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES.
rae a Pq occ] i ee sasseaeeneceeseenscereusesceeceeeeoree cp Siw) Wee PQ teesceeeseeeees “Pp teeterecescenes ee [oy csteseess [oy tessceses | [cesses sigisbee seas cscsuessenensssoce senses a) | go teseeeees @ teeeeneee Ztesseteas | eseeeseneesserseeseeres snodooArT PUR SUuLayy Bp tteeeeenseennes By teteeaneececees GQ serseetessasenslsorecersecnseeesesnceseeroerseroeteeseeses emose A J Gy ceeteeeeseneeeeneteeetee] ZT tereeeeeenes seassesccaee] p cerseeseeecssesteneesens|acesonensaerceceosersssneescovceveezeeees sup sOnd AID y |
ooevceseoseeeoe
0s eeocveenpeeee toe LL
LP S0DD0D0D0000G0005 2008008000088 008008800898SS81808 888 suopo[{yooou0 yy )
6% wooeecees eG OO
oe
Ae
ah came aaah
VG ge cere see eee
Be icin) |
000200000800 00080000008988 000 023800000 eopejodoures)
00 cece 200000000 200000000 000 c0c00esce ee1optod [ey |
L ZL ateta fe} eo gODOCONSsInIGqOSOO00909002200G00000008 eH (ITE | age 8 ace eG ew emenGien Ore Oe cee coos 200000 000000807 008908 000000008 000000 eepejod.Ajog | J
@20/0000008080808000 808808873 000008
gp oreo lbsovtvts es vaca eee eee te TO Tee
iG a aaa | TG eoceosesseseeeneeseosossesn 008200200 0808808808 809000800800 000808808 surBcorloURy =|
Vaile coe ae ‘plone arypvony Jo sishouhy npouashg— TTT £Ta¥,7,
82 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCTETY, Vol. VIIT,
Of the 60 natural orders, 28 are represented by only one species ; 10 by two species ; 7 by three species. The most extensively represented natural orders are Leguminose (21 sp.) and Graminee (20 sp.); followed by Muphorbiacece (14 sp.) and Composite (10 sp.) ; Malvacee (9 sp.), Rubiacee and Cyperacece -(each 8 sp.) ; Convolvulacece and Fungi (Hymenomycetes) (cach 7 sp.) ; Rutacec,
Cucurlitacee and Solanacee (each 6 sp.) ; Acanthacea and Urtwacee (each 5 sp.) ; Verbenaceac (4 sp.).
The land-mark height of the islands of the group is usually about 60 feet ; none of them exceed this. Deducting, therefore, the 12 to 15 feet of coral forma- tion that composes the islands, we find that none of the trees in the group are more than 45 to 50 feet high. ‘The tallest trees, and those that in all, the
inhabited islands, except Kadamum, form at the same time the bulk of the vegetation, are the coco-nuts, which are cultivated ; the majority of the remaining arboreal forms are also cultivated species, most of them being fruit- trees like Anona: muricata, Artocarpus incisa, Mangifera indica, Tamarindus indica, or trees like Moringa pterygosperma, with an immediate, or, like Sesbana grandiflora, with an indirect economic interest. There are only five arboreal species that are at all likely to be truly “ indigenous” in the accepted sense of the term; four of these—the Thespesia, the Calophyllum, the Pisonia and. Terminalia Catappa—are probably sea-introduced, the fifth (Ficus nitida) is perhaps a bird-introduced species ; four, however, as it happens, are known to be planted by the inhabitants at least in some of the islands, though three of them are undoubtedly “‘ wild’’ as well as planted.
In the interior of the majority of the islands there is no true jungle, the whole cultivable area being occupied by coco-nut groves with small patches of garden- - land (Kat); on this account there is, as might be expected, only a flora of tropical cultivated species, with the usual tropical weeds of cultivation and Indian garden escapes reported from the centre or the islands, and with some common Indian Ocean littoral species from the sea-fence that lines the shore. In the interior of the smaller uninhabited islands, such as Bitra and Bangdro, a dense jungle does, indeed, exist ; it is, however, composed of littoral species that have spread inward from the beach on both sides of the island till the two sea-fences have met and coalesced in the middle, In these islands the jungle is shrubby, hardly even subarboreal. The only island where there are considerable tracts of unoccupied ground, and where a true interior jungle exists, is Kadamum. Here also the jungle is of the nature of “ scrub,” and though there are present in it some quite characteristic inland forms, such as Pavetia, Pleurostylia and Flacourtia, which are not reported from the other islands, these do not exclusively compose the central jungle; characteristically “littoral” species, Premna, Morinda and the like, enter largely into its formation.
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 83
Only 47 species are woody, 20 of these being trees, 25 shrubs, and 2 climbers, Of the 20 trees, 15 are cultivated species ; 4 of the remaining 5 are “littoral.” Of the 159 herbaceous species, 119 are herbs proper, 28 are climbers,and 12 are of the class of ‘tree-herbs” or ‘ shrub-herbs” like JZusa or Carica end Agave or Calotropis.
From the nature of the group we are led to expect that none of the species are really indigenous ; further, that the majority of the species must have been intro- duced by man, and that next to human agency that of the sea has been most active. Detailed examination confirms these anticipations, for we find that as many as 127 species (three-fifths of the whole flora) are species that have been introduced by man. Of these, 52, or a fourth of the whole flora, are purely cultivated plants ; 7 others that appear mostly in an apparently wild state are likewise cul- tivated ; 4 that are cultivated occur occasionally as escapes. These figures refer to plants grown for economic reasons, but there are 13 other species that are “ oarden escapes’ in the more usual sense, being bright-flowered or sweet-smelling ' species originally grown deliberately. The remaining 64 species are mere weeds.
Of the balance, the larger moiety (41 species or one-fifth of the whole flora) consists of “‘ littoral’? sea-introduced species; the remainder includes 9 marsh or water species (a very small proportion of the flora) and 27 inland species.
The people of Minikoi cultivate 40 species as against 24 cultivated in Ameni, 18 in Anderut, 13 in Akati, 13 in Kiltén and11in Kadamum. The figures for the other islands are not at all complete. Doubtless, for some of these they are imperfect, but there is no reason to doubt that the numbers given are approxi- mately true ; they place the islands in a series which accords very well with the general accounts that have been given by those who have visited the islands, of the relative wealth and comfort of the people.
The cultivation of most of the species is the direct result of the intercourse of the people with the Indian mainland, perhaps the chief exception is their use of the South Sea Islanders’ Taro (Tacca pinnatifida), Of the cultivated plants, 10 are originally American, 5 originally African, 2 originally Chinese, the rest either Indian or Indo-Malayan ; the cultivation of nearly all the species is now, however, cosmopolitan in the tropics.
The weeds, like the cultivated plants, are by no means evenly distributed throughout the Archipelago. Of the whole 64 species, as many as 20 are reported from only one island ; even if we allow for the possibility of a species having been here and there overlooked, the proportion is very high. Without going into too ereat detail, it may be noted that 8 of these weeds—one-eighth of the weed-list-—are reported only from Minikoi ; more remarkable still, 31 species— very nearly one-haif the ist—occur in one or other of Laccadives proper, but not in Minikoi. The meaning of this is not very clear; it may be partly due to there being no large waste area in Minikoi, as there is for instance in Kadamum; perhaps, too, the people hold less intercourse with India than do those of the other
84 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII,
islands. That they do hold some may be surmised from the presence in Minikoi of one species, Aneilema ovalifolium, which is found in India only, not appearing even in Ceylon or in any of the other Laccadive Islands, It is, of course, not impossible that this isa bird-introduced species, in which case its peculiarly limited area of distribution is difficult to explain, As regards Kadamum, the same remarks apply to the even more restricted Cyperus hyalinus ; perhaps, however, this species may not be in South India so rare as we at present think. So far as their general distribution goes, 26 (40 °/,) of the weeds are cosmo- politan in the tropics—a few have not been reported from the Mascarene Islands, though they occur in Africa itself ; other 10 are nearly cosmopolitan, being present in both hemispheres—of these, 4 are absent from Polynesia, 2 from Australia, 83 from Australia and Polynesia, and one, which is confined to South-Hastern Asia and America, from Africa also. Altogether, therefore, 36 of these species, or 56 °/, of the weeds, occur in the tropics of both hemispheres, Of the species absent from the new world, there are 2 which extend from the Eastern Hemisphere to Polynesia, and 2 more that extend to Australia without reaching Polynesia. As many as 11 species, or 17 °/, of the weeds, are come mon to Africa and South-Eastern Asia ; but 4 of these are African only in the sense that they occur as weeds, no doubt introduced from India, in Mauritius. Of the whole, 13 species, or 20 °/, of the weeds, are confined to Asia ; all of them occur in India, though it is noteworthy that no fewer than 9 of them appear to be unknown in Ceylon ; this being so, we are not surprised to find that 14 of them are unknown in Malay countries. Considering next the species of the “ sylvestrian” class as opposed to those introduced by human agency, we expect that as the islands appeared above tea-level, they must first have afforded a footing for littoral species. Such plants could scarcely in point of time be preceded even by species of the wind-introduced class, while the conditions on the islands would be much more favourable for sea-introduced than for wind-introduced ones. Introduction by birds could only become active after species of the other classes had been established and had rendered the islands sufficiently attractive and conspicuous for birds to alight on them. We anticipate, therefore, that of the three kinds of Species mentioned the littoral sea-introduced class should be comparatively numerous, the other classes relatively scarce, This expectation is fully borne out by the facts. The coast-flora includes 41 unequivocally sea-introduced plants, and forms a fifth, or 20 °/,, of the entire Flora. Of these 41 species, 12, or 29 °/, (nearly a third), are cosmopolitan on tropical seashores. Of the remainder, 11 species, or nearly 27 °/,, extend from Polynesia to these islands, no fewer than 9 of them extending further west to Africa, or the Mascarene Islands, or both. There are 3 species that do not extend further east than to Australia and 18 that do not
BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 85
extend further than Malaya. On the other hand, 2 species (Laamea pinnatifida and Cyperus pachyrhizus) find on the Laccadives and the adjacent Indian Coasts their extreme eastmost extension; the Oyperus is a plant characteristic of the western coasts of India and of Arabia, the Zaawnea occurs on the coasts of Haste Africa—across the Arabian Sea—as well. With these two exceptions, however, all of the littoral species occur on Malay Coasts, and it is significant of the extent to which the sea-board flora is Malayan rather than Indian, When we observe that though 39, or over 97 °/,, of them are found in Malaya, no fewer than 8, or 20 °/,, of them are absent from the neighbouring Indian Coasts. The islands come, therefore, more within the influence of those ocean-currents that sweep up from the south-east from Malayan Seas than does the Indian Coast ; their shores, therefore, have some of the species characteristic of nearly every tropical coast from Fiji to the Seychelles that are wanting in India.
Of inland as opposed to littoral species those that are wind-introduced, as being likely to appear earliest, are the first to be considered. These are Phanerogams with seeds or fruits fitted for wind-carriage—of which there are here but two unequivocal examples (7ylophora and Leptadenia)—and small spored Cryptogams, of which there are 14, The two Phanerogams are species confined to South- Eastern Asia ; of the Cryptogams, on the other hand, 10 are cosmopolitan in the tropics ; one (Trametes Muelleri, which occurs likewise in Australia and in South America) is nearly so ; another (Calymperes Dozyanum) oceurs throughout South- Eastern Asia and in Polynesia ; only two are confined to South-Eastern Asia, and of these one has, so far as is at present known, been found only in Minikoi,
Of the species introduced by birds, whether by being carried in pellets of mud or otherwise attached to their feet or their feathers, or carried ag undigested seeds in their crops, the flora affords very few examples.
Of the former subgroup, consisting of marsh weeds with small seeds or fruits, there are but 9 unequivocal examples. They are, as a rule, widely distributed Species ; here, for example, three occur in both hemispheres—two are found throughout the tropics of the old world ; one extends from India to Polynesia. Only one is confined to South-Eastern Asia, and of one—the Chara, whose Specific identity is unknown—we cannot speak.
Of the second subgroup, species with soft fruits but resistent seeds, there are only 8 clear examples. Their most notable feature as compared with the last is their confined distribution. None are cosmopolitan, only one extends eastwards