TRE CaMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. .121 



to be found as the flowers fall in great numbers and, with them, 

 hirvEe must come down too. When at rest on a leaf in the sun, thie 

 wings are often kept partly separated though, in absolute repose, 

 they ai-e joined over the back in the usual way. De Niceville 

 says the insect '' is extremely pugnacious, fighting with others of its 

 own species whenever it meets them, and ascending high into the 

 air during the contest. It settles chieHy on bushes and trees, sel- 

 dom on the ground." He further quotes Aitken as having bred it 

 on Seshaniaaculeala\v\\\ch also belongs to Leguminosece ; and Green 

 \\x i^&yXon on Plwvhago ca-pensis oi the. Flumhaginacem . Mr. Green 

 remarks that he has never seen ants attending the larvae. They do 

 occasionally attend them as, indeed, the presence of the gland and 

 extensible organs on segments 11 and 12 would seem to indicate. 

 Like many other lycsenid caterpillars, this one may require ants, and 

 that may account for two such very dissimilar foodplants as Seshania 

 (or Albizzia) and Plumbago. The insect has a wide range : West 

 Africa, Aden, throughout India, Ceylon and Burma and into the 

 Malayan Sub-region. In Bombay Presidency it does not occur in 

 regions of very heavy rainfall and has never been met with in 

 Kanara, on the Ghats or at sea-level. Mr. Aitken, however, above 

 mentioned, bred it in the island of Bombay. 



The figures of the male and female, Plate G. 45 and 45a, are 

 rather good ; the upperside of the male is perhaps somewhat dull. 



157. Tarucus ananda, de Niceville. — This has generally, so far, been 

 placed in the genus Castalius, It is an undoubted Tai-ucus. 



Imago. — Male. Upper side; dark purple with a gloss in certain lights, with 

 narrow, uniform, black, marginal borders to both wings ; the spots of the 

 underside gf nerally showing through the wings which are bare of hairs on 

 the disc and the fore wing has hardly any fringe on the inner margin. 

 Underside : dull white, markings black. Fore wing ; with a band under 

 vein 12 from the base to the costa before the middle ; a bar from the 

 middle of the costa to the middle of the wing ; on its inner side there is 

 another broad bar extending hindwards to vein 1, and it sometimes 

 touches the second bar above, sometimes does not ; a postdiscal, macular 

 band, with the spots sometimes joined together, sometimes more or less 

 well separated. Hind wing : with the basal and subbasal, transverse 

 bands, sometimes broken ; a short discocellular band ; a postmedial 

 usually of three pieces ; both wings with subterminal and anteciliary, 

 uniform rows of small spots, the one in interspace 2 often larger and 

 touched with metallic blue-green scales outwardly. Antennae black, 

 ringed with white ; eyes smooth ; head and body black above, white 

 beneath ; club of antennae black ; frons black ; the palpi black above, 

 white beneath where the fringe of the second joint is white mixed with 

 black. 



Female like the male. Upperside with the ground colour dull, browner, 

 and with a blue gloss at the bases of the wings and along the dorsal 

 margin very much paler, often white on the disc ; the markings of the 

 underside showing conspicuously through the wings. Underside : as in 

 the male. 



Expanse of wings: cf • ? 25mm. .J 



16 



