THE CQMMQN. B UTTMRFLIES QF \TRE PLAINS OF INDIA. ; 1 1 5 



localities destitute of vegetation of Malayan character and very 

 scanty water stipply. All along the Western Ghats in Bombay it is 

 plentiful and is to be fbund all the year round in undiminiished 

 numbers, wherdas the other two species, G. sir abb and G. C7iejus, ate 

 a great deal more in evidence during the fair weather months tl^an 

 in ; the monsoon season. G. 'pandava is not quite such a strong 

 flier as these two and is slightly the smaller in size ; it is 

 not particularly fond of undiluted sunshine and open spaces and is 

 not met with at flowers as commonlj'^ as they are. Otherwise the 

 habits are very much the same in all stages. The species is 

 found also in Ceylon ; Assam ; Burma and the Malayan Subregion 

 adjoining. The foodplants vary but are generally belonging to 

 the Leguminosea\ Xylia dolahriformis, or Jamba as it is called 

 locally in the Southern Mahratta Country, is the commonest in 

 Bombay ; and curiously enough, it has been bred upon Cycas, a 

 garden plant of quite a different family by Mr. de Miceville in 

 Calculta and by the writer in Karwai% on the sea coast of Kanara, 

 in Bombay. , 



14. Genus — Tarucus. 



This generic group has a wide distribution in the Old World, to which it 

 is confined. There are three species occurring in British India, one being 

 found from North Africa to Upper Burma ; another from Africa to China 

 and the Malayan Subregion ; tlie third being confntd to India, from 

 Sikhiin to the Nilgiris and Southern India generally. Tarucus venosus, 

 Moore, is mentioned by Colonel Bingham as a fourth species confined to 

 Northern India. He says : "I agree with the late Mr. de Niceville that 

 breeding experiments will probably prove that this form belongs merely 

 to the dark, wet season brood of ordinary theophrqstus." 



155. Tarucus theophrastus, Fabricus.— Male. (PI. G, fig. 51). Upperside: 

 pale or deeper purple to violet with, in certain lights, a blue suffusion ; the 

 markings of the underside slightly apparent through transpHrency, the 

 wing-surface .bare of hairs on the discs ; a fringe of lougish, white 

 ha'rs along inner margin. Fore wing: costal margin above vein 12 

 blackish; iliscocellulars with a transverse elongate, often broad blackish 

 spot ; a slender, anteciliary, black line. Hind wing : immaculate except 

 for, an ant3ciliary black lim^ as on the fore wing. Vilia of both fore 

 and hirtfl wings dull sullied to pure white with a bro«-r,ish -black band 

 al'ng their bases. , JJnderdde -. white or yellowish with the following 

 black markinojs : — Fore wing: an anteciliary line continued aloiig the 

 costa but not Up to tha base: a streak b3low vein 12 from base passing 

 obliquely to the costa ; a less obliquely-placed irregular streak across 

 the cell with a spot below it in interspace 1 (or that streak continued into 

 1 and even la) ; a curved interrupted band beyond, that consists of a spot 

 in interspace 9 joined to a transverse bar across the discocellulars, and 

 detached from it (or not) a spot in interspace 2 thut coa'esces with an- 

 other in interspace 1 : following this are four upper discal spots two and 

 two placed obliquely, the lower two often coalescent ; a transverse,, post- 

 discal, more or less macular, curved band ; and a subtermiMal, transverse 

 series of six round equal-si/t-d spots. Hind wing : an obliquely placed, 

 basal streak and a spot below it on the inner margin ; a row of three 

 spots across the cell and one at the inner margin at the end, the upper 



