THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 467 



under segment 2 but clasps the edge with segment 2 so to speak, the 

 margin of whicli therefore can assume any shape desirable. It is 

 very difficult to see as the colour is exactly that of the leaves and 

 flower-bud of the plant. The pupa is generally on the upperside 

 of a leaf of the plant itself or of some other shrub or plant that may 

 be in the vicinity. The larva wanders a good deal in its slow, deli- 

 berate way before changing. The pupa is fixed only by the tail and 

 is capable of shivering vertically up and down from the segment- 

 margin 9-10; so as to produce, on alarm, a rapid knocking noise. The 

 butterfly is not often seen but is the commonest of the Camena-Creon- 

 Praiapa-Tajuria group in Bombay always, of course excepting 

 Tajuria cippus. It inhabits, in Kanara, similar places to Cmnena 

 argentea, i.e., the tops of hills and small plateaux on their slopes 

 w^here its food-plant is plentiful. The particular Lorcunthusscurrula 

 is as common at a height of a couple of hundred feet from sea-level in 

 Kanara on such trees as Terminalia pamcalata as it is higher up and, 

 as was only to be expected, the larvse were found there on it also. 

 So the female at any rate must live down there also although she 

 practically never is seen except when ovipositing (laying eggs). 

 The male seems to like the tops of high trees and may be seen any 

 day in the monsoon montlis basking on the leaves of such in company 

 "with Caniena argentea which it resembles in its habits of sitting and 

 flight. The female is not rarer than the male ; on the contrary, she 

 is more plentiful, as is proved in breeding by the fact that the majority 

 of pupa? produce that sex. PnUapa (leva is found in India, Burma 

 and Ceylon. The caterpiller does not attract ants. 



26. Genus Tajuria. 



■'Differs from Pratapa, Moore {=^Camena, Hewitson). in the absence in the 

 male of both the tuft of hair on the forewing and the glandular path on the hind 

 wing. Fore wing : broader and more regularly triangular in form ; venation 

 similar. Hind wing : comparatively narrower and more produced hindwards ; 

 discoidal cell broader, the subcostal and median nervules emitted further from 

 the base." (Moore.) . . .in my opinion the sexual characters which 

 are present in males of Pratapa {z^Camena) and wanting in those of Tajuria 

 are very important structural characters, and had they been wanting in Camena 

 I should certainly and without hesitation have run the two genera into one 

 (de Niceville). This is so ; they are all very like species of Camena, the males 

 are mostly bright metallic blue on the upper sides, the females generally light, 

 non-metallic blue ; the undersides are also more or less similar : some pure white, 

 grey or brown with very well-defined lines or sj^ots of brown or black. They are 

 all strong, good fliers, frequenting trees and vegetation. The larvge of indra 

 cippus and the nearly allied (Ops) melastigma all feed on species of Lorantlms 

 and the pupae are without body-band standing fi-ee on their tails. 



173. Tajuria indra, Moore. Male. — Upperside : both wings briUiant morpho 

 blue, the margins black. Fore wing : the costal margin very narrowly black. 

 Hind wing : with two tails, the lobe and two caudal spots black, bordered below 

 with white. Underside : both wings white, the outer margins broadly brown 

 suffused with grey and crossed by a white band. Hind wing with three black 



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