LARVsE AND PUPJE OF BUTTERFLIES. 351 



in colour it was green, with a whitish band round the 9th segment. 



Its habits were also very. like those of L. procris, but not quite the 



same. It selected one of the side nerves of a leaf and ate away the 



soft parts on each side till the bare nerve stood out ; then having 



barricaded the approach to this with fragments of leaf which it bad 



contrived to cut off in feeding, mixed with excrement and silk, it 



rested motionless on the very point of the rib, unapproachable by ants 



or spiders. After the last moult it gave up these habits, and rested 



on the upper side of a leaf, where it was conspicuous enough. "We infer 



that the worst enemies of this species are not birds, or parasites, 



but small spiders and predacious insects. The pupa is of the most 



brilliant silver colour, the segments and parts being outlined with 



brown. It is suspended perpendicularly, the abdominal segments 



slender, the thoracic region larger and expanded laterally ; two long, 



sharp horns, issuing from the sides of the head, and at first parallel, 



diverge and point laterally ; on the back there are two prominent 



processes, curved towards each other, and many smaller points, or 



tubercles. 



43. Neptis riraja, Moore. 



This was discovered by Mr. Bell feeding on a tree with pinnate 

 leaves. From his description it appears to be like the larva of 

 N. jumbah, without the spines, but we have not seen it ourselves and 

 only notice it here because of the light which its strange habits throw 

 on our discovery of the pupa of N. hordoiu'a in a loose cocoon of dead 

 leaves. The larva of riraja, Mr. Bell says, cuts through a leaf stalk 

 in such a way that all the leaflets beyond the cut part hang over ; 

 then it cuts off each leaflet of the pendent part, joins it to the stem 

 with silk, and lives in the house of dead leaves thus formed, feeding 

 on the dead kares. 



44. Cyrestis thyodamas, Boisduval. 

 Mr. T. H. Bell noticed a female on the 10th of October depositing 

 its eggs on the tenderest leaves and buds of a "banian" tree (Ficus 

 indica ), and secured six, of which two were reared. The eggs were 

 curious and beautiful, high dome-shaped, or almost conical, with an 

 aperture at the top fitted with a deeply dentate, flat cap, like a cogged 

 wheel. The larva escaped by raising this and did not eat the shell. 

 The larva was unlike anv other that we have ever seen, slender, 



