COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 27 



caterpillar will feed upon other than youn<T leaves also, then the 

 butterfly will have broods following each other without intermission, 

 though the time between any two will always be shortest when the 

 leaves are young and fresh. The growth of larvae is slowest in the cold 

 weather when the leaves are hardest. The slower the growtli, 

 always given plentiful food, the larger the resulting butterfly. In. 

 the one and two brooded butterflies it is the pupal state in which the 

 longest time is spent, this time amounting in certain species to as 

 much as eleven and twelve months in rare cases. Heut and cold, 

 rain and drought, each has its effect on the duration of this stage. A 

 larva, fed upon young succulent shoots, grows rapidly and the result- 

 ing imago (perfect insect) is rather small and dark-coloured. The 

 growth of such larv?e is so rapid indeed that the whole time elapsing 

 between the appearance of the egg and the birth of the butterfly 

 may be but a short fortnight as in Ateila and Appias. The pupal 

 stage is then, of course, of short duration. The eclosion of the 

 butterfly takes place by the splitting of the pupal case along the 

 same line as that of the larva at the end of its last stage : the emer- 

 gence being effected slowly and gradually as usual. The newly- 

 born insect holds on by the fully formed legs to the empty case as a 

 very general rule or it may run away to some convenient place 

 where it can hang in a position to develop its wings without inter- 

 fering with their free expansion. The wings, all shrivelled and 

 wrinkled at first, though perfectly symmetrically so, gradually unfold 

 and assume the flat, fully expanded aspect they finally have, hanging 

 straight downwards ; soft at first, they gradually harden in the air 

 and the process is aided by their being opened and exposed on all 

 sides as they gain strength. In half an hour or so everything is 

 ready and the butterfly enters upon its real life by flying oft' into the 

 sunny world, there to fulfil its appointed task. Although the colours 

 are fully developed before eclosion from the pupa, sunlight and motion 

 are necessary to the full realisation of the brilliant tints distinguish- 

 ing many species, life being a sine qua non : for, if death intervene 

 too soon, the colours remain for ever dull. 



Every species of butterfly has its own particular character re- 

 sulting in habits of life distinct from any other. ISome delight in 

 the company of their kind, some are solitary and choose to be alone ; 

 some delight in sunlight, others affect the shade, one likes the drv 



