THE COMMON B UTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 465 



rule or on a stalk or stem with the head directed downwards ; there 

 is no body-loop. Ants do not pay much heed to the caterpillar or 

 chryslis. The butterHy flies well but does not bask openly nor is it 

 found at the tops of trees. It is an insect of the lower forest strata 

 and is not often seen even where it is more or less abundant judging 

 by the eggs and larvije. The egg is much parasitized by small Chalcids 

 and microichneumons though the larva itself seems to be fairly 

 immune to parasitic attack. Ants do not trouble themselves much 

 about the caterpillar and are rarely seen to visit it. The food -plants 

 are Loranthus elasticus, the same as that of Tajuria indra — or Viscum 

 capitellatum, one of the food-plants of Camena argentea. The former 

 is a very common species of Mistletoe and is common on Mango trees 

 and others. The habitat of cleobis is Continental and Peninsular 

 India. 



172. Pratapa deva., Moore. Male. — Upperside : fore wing with the discoidal 

 cell and the posterior base brilliant blue intersected by the dark median and 

 submedian nervures, costal margin and anterior half of wing before the 

 posterior angle dark brown. Hind wing : with the middle, from the base, 

 brilliant deep blue, a broad, costal and narrow, exterior margin of dark brown ; 

 along the exterior margin are disposed some blackish marks ; a black spot on 

 the anal lobe, surrounded with whitish ; abdominal margin pale grey brown. 

 Tails two, brown ; cilia whitish. Underside : both wings very pale cream-colour 

 with a series of interrupted marks disposed in an undulating line across the 

 wings and terminating in a zig-zag mamier abdominally on the hind wing. 

 Hind wing : anal angle with a black spot bordered anteriorly with red and 

 another of the same a short distance off on the exterior margin. — Female. 

 Upperside : both wings paler blue, hardly metallic and with lighter brown mar- 

 gins. Underside : similar to that of the male. 



Egg. — Hemispherical in shape, somewhat depressed. Surface covered with 

 large, absolutely regular, hexagonal cells with thinnish walls ; one apical cell the 

 walls of which are buttressed inside ; two and a half cells from apex to base — 

 they are very large — but not including the apical cell ; at each intersection of 

 the ceU-waUs is a short, jagged-topped protuberance ; the whole surface, as 

 seen at the bottoms of the cells, pitted minutely. The egg is broadest at the 

 base and white in colour. B : 1mm. or very near it, rather less if anything. 



Larva. — ^The larva is more or less the shape of Tajuria cippus but there is 

 no waist practically, also the tops of segments 3, 4 are not flat as in that species ; 

 body broadest at segment 5 and also highest ; gradually narrowing and decreas- 

 ing in height up to the end, the slope of anal segments slightly steeper than that 

 of preceding segments ; from segment 5 forwards the dorsal slope is also a straight 

 line to the front of segment 2 ; body swelling out laterally in segments 4, 6, 

 6 ; segment 2 semi-circular in outline, deeply triangularly emarginate in the 

 dorsal line of the front margin ; the dorsal depression of segment 2 4-sided with 

 a thin, dorsal line on it joining two angles, the bottom covered with minute 

 hairs and coloured like the rest of the body ; the anal segment is rather shortly 

 square at the extremity and the same, black, subdorsal, impressed lines, that 

 distinguish the larva of Tajuria cippus, running forward to the spiracle of seg- 

 ment 12. The head is hidden by segment 2, round, shining, light in colour. 

 The transverse section of the body is triangular, more or less equilateral, more 

 or less rounded at the angles, the body being more or less carinated along dorsal 

 line and applied closely along ventrum to the resting surface ; there is no dorSo- 

 ventral flange. Surface : dull, covered closely with minute, erect, pointed hairs 



