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Three apaturine butterflies placed in the genus Hestina are reviewed with regard to their taxonomic history, characteristics of the wing markings, distribution and early stages. There has been taxonomic controversy for a long time on the genus Hestina mainly due to the lack of understanding of the polymorphism characteristic to the genus. Therefore, all of the names ever applied to species and subspecies included in Hestina are revised in detail, synonymic names being assigned to each appropriate taxonomic position, and we consider Hestina assimilis, H. persimilis and H. nicevillei as species-level names. Among these, H. persimilis is regarded as most widely distributed species from N. Pakistan to Japan, which shows a gradual cline or step-cline over a very long distance. It is noted that the name viridis Leech, 1890, which is shown to be the oldest valid name for Chinese population of H. persimilis, is selected as the subspecies-name instead of the name chinensis (Leech, 1890) that has been widely used so far.
1997-06-20