440 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



seek tliem out and arc certainly not necessary to the caterpillar's 

 existence. The butterfly is strong and quick on the wing but never 

 flies far at a time, is not always quick in getting up and drops suddenly 

 on to a leaf or settles on a stalk, twig, &c., where it walks about 

 slowly. It rests also in similar places and keeps the wings closed 

 over the back ; it rarely is found basking and does not seem to feed 

 much on flowers or sip moisture from the ground. It lives amongst 

 the foliage of the trees but is not found much in the open as distinct 

 from the protection of leaves, &c. ; it has a moderate liking for the 

 sun but is not found in deep shade either. Both forms timoleon and 

 mceccnas have been bred, the former in the monsoon months and 

 end of the hot w^eather when the shoots are all young and succulent, 

 the latter in the cold weather when food for larvae is not so plentiful 

 nor so full of sap. The foodplant of the caterpillar is Ficus bengal- 

 ensis or Wad, the common Banyan ; but it has also been bred 

 from Ficus glomerafa where it was found feeding on the fruits ; 

 and, no doubt, it also eats other figs. The butterfly is not rare 

 where it occurs but it is difiicult to come by owing to its habit of 

 keeping amongst foHage and its unwillingness to feed on flowers ; 

 the larvae can always be had in numbers. The habitat has been 

 given under the Genus ; and it may be added that it is further 

 confined to the hills and places of heavy or moderately heavy 

 rainfall. 



19. Genus — Sukendra. 



There are three species known : S. quercetorum with a very wide distribution : 

 the only one that concerns us here ; amisena from Burma, Singapore, Nias 

 Island ; and florimel from the Tavoy District in Burma. This last has no tails 

 to the hind wing ; the other two have one tail in the male, two in the female. 

 The undersides are marked in a characteristic manner and have the appearance 

 of " cloudings " rather than definite lines, bands and spots as in the rest of 

 the Lyccenidce. The transformations of S. quercetorum only are known. They 

 are given below. The larva is somewhat abormal in shape ; the pupa is 

 more or less normal. The genus is represented in the Himalayas, Southern 

 and Eastern Ladia, Burma, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula and the Islands of 

 Nias and Java which is the range of ;S^. quercetorum. 



164. Surendra quercetorum, Moore. — ^Male. Upperside: both wings dark- 

 brown, the middle of the wings from base outwards for more than half the 

 length, including the cell above and as far as vein 1 below, shining violet-purple. 

 Fore wing : a fringe of brown hair along the inner margin ; the cilia dark-brown 

 at base, lighter beyond. Hind wing : the pm'ple often entirely wanting, the 

 brown rather paler than in upper wing ; often a fine, terminal, darker line, the 

 cilia as on fore wing. A 3 mm. long, narrow, ribbon-like tail at end of vein 

 1, a point of scales at end of vein 2 ; the tail black, tipped white. Underside ; 

 light greyish-brown with sinuous, dark-brown, fine, transverse lines and spots ; 

 the termen of the fore wing clouded darker except at apex, this clouding extending 

 inwards triangularly but not reaching the centre of the disc ; on the hind wing a 

 similar, darkish-brown clouding occupying most of the apex and extending in 

 a narrowing band across to the inner margin where it is bordered below by the 

 medial, transverse line of lunules. Fore wing : with the following dark-brown 



