110 JOURNAL, BOMBAV NATURAL HL'ST. ^^OCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



eggs are often laid on a single plant but few come to matui-ity as 

 they ai'e mach pai-asitized by micro-ichneumons. There are probably 

 many foodplants but one of the commonest is a thin twining, 

 leguminous creeper called Gijlista scariosa which occurs everywhere 

 in plenty, both in the open and in the jungles. Any leguminous 

 plant would probably do as well for the butterfl}^ is very common 

 throughout Peninsular India and it is very variable in the shade of 

 lilue in the males. It is very strong on the wing and has the same 

 liabits as G. cnejvs. Colonel Bingham gives the distribution of the 

 species as " Peninsular India south of the outer ranges of the 

 Himalayas ; Ceylon ; Assam ; Burma ; Tennasserim ; the Andamans ; 

 Nicobars; extending through the Malayan subregion to Australia." 

 It can always be distinguished from G. cnejus by its hairy eyes and 

 the invariable presence of a little subcostal dot in interspace 10 

 just inside discal band on the underside of the fore wing. 



The male and female are depicted on Plate G, figures 44 

 and 44a. The upperside in the male is too blue ; the colour 

 of the underside not light enough ; the spot on the costa between 

 the discocellular short band and the discal band is not shown ; in 

 the female the shades are better and the costal spot is correctly 

 shown. 



153. Catochrysops cnejus, Fabr. — Male (PL G., fig 60) — Upperside : pale 

 brownish-purple sutt'iised with a bluish shade, apparent only in certain 

 lights and no appressed hairs on the disc ; a fringe of blue hairs along inner 

 margni. Fore wing : a slender, black, anteciliary lino edged on the inner side 

 narrowly with fuscous dark-brown, broader afc apex than at the tornal 

 angle. Hind wing : a subterminal, black spot in interspace 1 and another 

 similar spot in interspace 2, the two spots subequal in size, edged on the 

 outer side by a white thread and on the inner side with ochraceous, more 

 prominent in the spot in interspace 2 ; a slender, anteciliary black line 

 with an inner, narrow margin of diffuse fuscous brown. Cilia of both fore 

 and hind wings pale brown at base ; tail at apex of vein 2 of the hind 

 wing black tipped with white Unden^ide : silver-grey, in some with a 

 pale yelloAish, in others with a faint brown tint. Fore and hind wings : 

 each with the following brown spots edged slenderly on either side with 

 white : a transverse elongate spot on the discocellulars ; a transverse dis- 

 cal series of six spots straight on the fore, bisinuate on the hind wing ; on 

 the latter wing capped near the costa by a prominent, white-encircled, 

 round, black seventh spot ; an inner and an outer subtermuial. transverse 

 series of spots, of which the inner subterminal series on the hind wing is 

 lunular, the outer rounded ; the white edging to both series being also lunu- 

 Isr ; both wings have very slender, anteciliary, black lines, and the hind 

 wing, ill addition, a transverse, curved, subbasal series of generally three, 

 often four, white-encircled spots of which the spot nearest the costa is 

 prominent and black, the others brown. Antennas, head (frons white), 

 thorax and abdomen dark brown, paler on the last, the shafts of the 

 antenn-e ringed with white, the thorax with a little purplish | ubescence ; 

 beneath: the palpi, thorax, and abdomen white. — Female (PI. G., fig. .50a.). — 

 Upp^rsidf : dark brown. Fore wing : a postero-medial somewhat trian- 

 gular area from the base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the 

 wing blue and a slender jet-black or brown, indistinct anteciliarv line. 



