THE COMMON B UTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA . 951 



iu the usual wa^y. It exists from sea-level to 2,500' — the highest 

 parts that Kauara can boast of but never seems to go into the 

 absolutely open fields nor to extend further than where the rainfall 

 is less than about 30 ". The larva is not attended by ants as a rule 

 but, occasionally, these insects may be found on the young leaves 

 with them although, it seems, not with the primary intention of 

 visiting them. The eggs are laid, as a rule, many on one plant, on 

 the young shoots in the axils of leaves and on buds. Some of the 

 foodplants are Cinnamon, Xylia dolahriformis, Saraca indica(^ both 

 these last Lerjuminosece ) and, doubtless, there are others. Cinna- 

 mon belongs to the laurels or Lauracece. The places from which the 

 insect has been recorded are: Southern India and Cejdon, There 

 is another form, formerly considered to be a separate species but 

 now regarded as a race only, C. freja, Fabricius, the originally 

 described form from North India, which exactly resembles joffra 

 except that the undersides are washed with ferruginoiis. That 

 race exists in the Himalayas ; Assam ; Burma ; Malay Peninsula, 

 Java and Borneo. 



38. Genus — Bindahaka 



Eyes hairy ; body moderateljr stout ; palpi directed straight forward 

 (twice as long in the female as in the male), second joint scaly, very long, 

 extending two-thirds beyond the head, third joint one-third its length, 

 slender, naked ; legs scaled, femors slightly hairy beneath ; antennoe 

 with a lengthened, pointed club. There are two species and a more or 

 less constant race recognized in India : phocides from Himalayas in Bhutan, 

 Sikkira, Sylhet, Burma, South Andamans, Malay Peninsvila and Nias 

 Island ; areca from the Nicobars ; and our one, sugriva from South India, 

 Ceylon and Java. This last is easily recognized. by its pure velvety black 

 uppersides with long cream-coloured or light coftee-coloured tails, as long 

 as, and very similar to, the white ones of Cheritra jaffra, with a bright 

 metallic-blue, short band above them in the male ; the female is brown and 

 rather similar to the female of Cheritra jaffra but easily distinguishable 

 from it by the banded underside which is the same in both sexes ; the anal 

 lobe of the hind wing is oblong and elongated. Sugriva is common 

 in the iuneles of the Western Ghats in Kanara District and is 

 fond of flov/ers, especially those of Leea. The larva is very like those 

 of the genera Deudorix and Virachola, having the same peculiar formation 

 of the last three segments to form a shovel for cleaning out the fruits 

 in which it lives and which it eats. The butterfly flies fast and well and 

 keeps to the tops of high trees but does not come out into the open. The 

 pupa is also similar to those of those genera. 



195. Bindahara sugriva, Horsfield. Male. — Upperside : both wings black. 

 Fore wing : with the extreme costal nervure yellowish and marked near the 

 apex with three delicate, oblique, black lines. Hind wing: narrow, 

 gradually tapering to the anal extremity, with a single marginal notch 

 near the base of the tail ; where starts a broad, short, metallic-blue, 

 marginal band, varying in tint according to the light, terminating at a 

 small distance above the anal angle ; abdominal margin brown from 

 the base to the middle, then greyish-yellow, in the anal region orange 

 extending to the extremity of the tail ; there are two black lunules in the 



