THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 461 



prefers these all through its existence ; only when full-grown will 

 it eat the branches right down, even to where they begin to get 

 tough. The foodplant withers and shrivels very rapidly excejjt 

 kept in a closed glass vessel. The young fruits are also attacked 

 and the flowers. Ants rarely visit the caterpillars in any stage but 

 occasionally there are some about and they do suck the gland. The 

 pupa is formed, like that of Tajuria cippus, on the base of a stem or 

 on a tree-trunk or elsewhere, with the head pointing down when on a 

 perpendicular surface. It is attached by the tail but not extremely 

 strongly and has also a body-band. When touched or otherwise 

 alarmed it shivers imperceptibly but rapidly in the abdomiual seg- 

 ments producing a somewhat high-pitched, knocking noise ; but 

 whether by actual impact against the resting-surface or otherwise 

 is not substantiated. Altogether this larva and pupa seem to indicate 

 that the butterfly, notwithstanding resemblances, should not belong 

 to this genus Camena. It has the habits of Pralapa deva in that the 

 male is fond of basking on the tops of high trees in the sun and it is 

 even more prone to do this than that species. In fact the tops of 

 hills and, there, the tops of trees, are about the only places where 

 it may be commonly seen and caught. On a sunny day the male 

 insects fly up to the tops of the hills and bask on the tip of a leaf 

 near the top of a tree, sitting with the wings partially opened, the 

 underside ghnting like a new rupee in the sun so that, when seen at 

 the proper angle, it at once attracts the attention and that even at a 

 distance of as much as 30 or 40 feet ! It rests for long intervals thus, 

 then suddenly darts off after a passer-by, following for a considerable 

 distance, sometimes up into the sky, at others in a wild chase over the 

 tree tops and down the side of the hill ; to return to exactly the same 

 leaf, where it assumes its original pose. It may be found thus from 

 about 11 a.m. to 2 in the afternoon in the monsoon months on the 

 jungle-covered heights round Karwar on the coast in the Bombay 

 Presidency. In the bright spells which alternate with driving mists 

 from the open sea and, often, a heavy wind, there is, frequently, an ab- 

 solute lull when the heat comes down, damp, oppressive and saturated 

 \\'ith moisture like a heavy blanket, over the isolated hill-tops which 

 rear their forest covered, boulder-strewn heads along the spurs of 

 the Western Ghats in dead and mysterious silence. It is then that 

 insect life really wakes up and revels in ecstasies of acti\dty. Standing 

 on a huge boulder only just below the tree-tops, may be observed 

 the extraordinary phenomenon of hundreds of butterflies of all 

 descriptions from the great Papilio tamilana with its glorious pea- 

 cock-blue eye on the hind vnng, with P. daJcsha, P. polymnestor, 

 dashing along through a small clearing in the jungle to dive into the 

 shades immediately below on their way down the hill-side ; to the 

 small Terias Jiecabe, Leptosia xyphia and Bihasis sena fluttering about 

 the ground on the edges or darting backwards and forwards in a. 



