COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 35 



:ui abxindant food for the larvae with nuts galore to protect them and 

 keep them in liealth : which does not, however, prevent them from be- 

 ing carried off in large numbers by AinmophUa wasps wherewith to 

 stock the '6" to (')" perpendicuilar shafts in the hard soil at the bottom 

 of which the young wasp-grub lies with its nose buried in the store 

 of delicate green food. 



It is probable that the disagreeable smell emitted by the 

 ornithopterine and danaine groups of butterflies, while disagreeable to 

 enemies, is attractive to the insects themselves and serves to bring the 

 sexes together. The males of many species of Lepidoptera have 

 glands, patches of scales, tufts of hair, which can have but this raison. 

 d'etre. Many of the Lyccenidie and Satyrince possess patches of 

 specialised scales in the males v\hich emit odours, called androconia. 

 Discophora lepida (Morp/imue) male has a large circular patch on the 



centre of the upperside of the hindwing which smells of apples and 

 lemons mixed so strongly as to be plainly discernible even to the 

 human nose from a distance of many yards ; indeed the smell alone is 

 sufficient to betray the presence of the butterfly, otherwise difficult to 

 find or see from its habit of coming out only after sun-down and in 

 dense bamboo-jungle. It has been observed that the females come to 

 meet the males where the latter, in the dusk of the evening, have the 

 habit of flying backwards and forwards, to and fro, as long as any 

 light lasts — and perhaps after — in one particular glade amongst the 

 bamboos. 



Some butterflies bear a striking resemblance to the natural 

 objects among which they are in the habit of resting, this resem- 

 blance enabling the species possessing it to escape their enemies in 

 many cases. It is found in all classes of insects here and there but 

 in none, perhaps, is it so perfectly developed as in the well-known — at 

 least in name — " leaf-butterfly " belonging to the genus Kallimaot'the 

 sub-family iV/y mphalince. These insects are in the habit of settling, head 

 downwards witji the wings closed over the back so as to show only the 

 undersides, on a tree trunk, twig, thin stem or dead leaf in shady places 

 in the undergrowth in the jungle and it is often, although the eyes 

 may have actually watched an insect to its resting place, extremely 

 difficult to distinguish it from the surrounding leaves hung up in 

 cobwebs, caught in the axils of twigs or branches of plants, «&c., so 



