THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 129 



with brown all along the borders of the wing ; there is a dorsal brown line 

 and a spiracular one ; the segment-margins also brown. L : 10 mm. ; 

 B : 3 mm. 



Hahits. — There is nothing much to say about the habits iu all 

 stages for they are similar to those of other members of the genus. 

 The eggs are laid singly on the leaves and nearly always on the 

 undersides ; the young larva eats in a similar manner to that of 

 G. rosimon, so does the full-grown one ; the pupation takes place 

 on the underside of a leaf and the attachment is by the tail and a 

 body -band ; sometimes, rarely, it is formed on the upper surface. 

 The larva is not ever, as far as observed, attended by ants. The 

 butterfly is always to be found close to the ground, flying about 

 the places where the foodplant is growing on the borders of partial 

 clearings in the big jungles. It is never found in absolutely open 

 ground, neither does it like dense shade. It behaves much like 

 G. decidea and is easy to catch if it were not for the thorny 

 character of the foodplant which interferes with the manipulation 

 of a net. The foodplant is exclusively Z. oenoiilia " a straggling- 

 shrub or large climber with single, hooked or rarel}^ germinate 

 spines, obliquely ovate or oblong-ovate leaves 1-2*5 in length, 

 with copious, brown, silky hairs beneath ; few-flowered, axillary 

 cymes of light greenish-yellow flowers and small, black, edible 

 fruits." {Haines in The Forest Flora of Chota Nagpur.) The 

 young plants are erect like a young tree and the leaves are quite 

 glabrous and thin in texture and it is chiefly on these young plants 

 that the eggs and larvae are easily to be found. Ziziji^hus oenoplia 

 is a very large climber at times, is nearly evergreen and very 

 common in regions of heavy and moderate rainfall. The eggs, 

 larvse and pupje are much parasitized. The butterfly is con- 

 fined to damp jungles where the rainfall is heavy, and will 

 be found all along the ghats in Bombay. The male is a beautiful 

 little insect easily recognised by the irridescent blue interior 

 bordering to the black ends of the wings on the upperside. 

 Its distribution is : the Western Ghats of Bombay as far south 

 as Travancore ; Ceylon ; Andamans ; Assam ; Burma to JNIalay and 

 Java. 



160. Castalius rosimon, Fabr. — Male. (PI. G., fig. 46) — Upperside: (bare of 

 hairs on the disc) white. Fore wing : with hardly any fringe of hair on inner 

 margin : costa, apex and termen edged with black, the edging much broader 

 on apex and termen ; base outwards for a short distance more or less densely 

 overlaid with metallic blue scales which cover and make indistinct a large 

 basal, outwardly-clavate, black spot ; a transverse, black, oval spot on the 

 discocellulars touching the black edging on the costa ; an oblique, irregular 

 line of four quadrate black spots beyond, the upper spot coalescent with 

 the black on the costal border, the next spot below shifted outwards out 

 of line, touching, as does also the lowest spot, the terminal black edging ; 

 posterior to this is a quadrate black spot in the apical half of interspace 2, 

 and placed obliquely outwards from it coalescent with the terminal black 

 border, another similar spot in interspace 1 . Hind wing : three basal, 



17 



