A LIST OF THE BOMBAY BUTTERFLIES IN THE SOCIETY'S COLLECTION. 127 



In the present unsettled state of the subject it would be impossible to 

 attempt such a thing without diverting a great deal more of my leisure than 

 I am willing to diyert from nature to nomenclature, and I am besides 

 peculiarly disqualified for such a task by my inability to believe in a great 

 many of the species which are accepted by those who seem to be 

 pillars. This will account for the absence from my list of a good many 

 species, under one or two genera in particular, such as Terias and Tcracolus, 

 which, if they arc species at all, are very common. 



I have no systematic notes of the months in which I have caught each 

 species. I regret this, but at the same time I think that the data 

 obtained in this way may be over-valued. Suppose from such notes you 

 deduce the fact that D. chrysippus, for example, may be met with every 

 month in the year, is the fact worth recording ? There is no butterfly 

 which may not be met with any month in the year, for some pupge always 

 remain over from one season to the next, and an accident may bring tbese 

 out at any time. What we want to know is when each species is in 

 season and why ? Almost every species has a well-defined season, depend- 

 ing on its food plant. For the great majority this is the latter half of 

 the monsoon, and the two months following, i.e t) the period during which 

 the annual vegetation called into life by the rain remains green. Another 

 season is the commencement of spring, which even in this country makes 

 its influence distinctly felt. A, violce comes out at this time. Some 

 species appear at neither of these seasons except by accident. Virachola 

 isocrates, for example, where it feeds on the pomegranate, can only be in 

 season when that fruit is ripening. I have tried, as far as I can, from 

 memory and notes, to give the limits of the time during which each 

 species is in season. 



NYMPHALIDiE. 



DANAlNiE. 



1. Danais chrysippus. — This, with the exception, perhaps, of Terias 

 hecabe, is the commonest and most ubiquitous butterfly on this side of 

 India. At Kharaghora, on the edge of the Runn of Catch, this was one 

 of the very few flying things I could get, and my chameleon would starve 

 rather than cat it. I never found the larva on anything else than Calo- 

 Iropisgigantca. Dwarf specimens of this are not uncommon. All our Danaince 

 are on the wing chiefly from about August till the end of the year. 



2. D. dorippus. — There is one specimen in the collection without locality. 

 I have never met with it, but have known of at least one specimen being 

 caught in Bombay. I believe it to be an occasional variety of chrysippus. 



3. D. genutia. — This is common almost everywhere, though by no means 

 so abundant as the last. One specimen in the Society's collection has that 



