48 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



The species of butterilies may be classified according to their larval 

 form as follows : — 



A. Larva with four pairs of tentacles. 



a. Larva banded black and white with red spots ... Hestia malabarica. 



b. Larva banded brown and white ; no spots. 



a^. Spiracular band white touched with orange, 

 tentacles flesh-coloured or pink, front pair 

 generally held curled up Euplaa hollan. 



I) . Spiracular band yellow suffused orange, 



tentacles brown, front pair never curled ... Euplaa core. 



B. Larva with three pairs of tentacles. 



a. These tentacles on segments .3, 4, 12 EupUm coreta. 



h. These tentacles on segments 3, 6, 12, 



a^. Body banded black and white with yellow 



subdorsal spots Danais chrysippus 



&'. Body banded black and white with white 



spots as well as yellow ones Danais plexippus. 



C. Larva with two pairs of tentacles. 



a. Larva banded broadly black and white Danais limniace. 



b. Larva claret-brown spotted with yellow and white Danais aglea. 



The foodplants of the caterpillars of the subfamily are confined to 

 the botanical families the UriicacecB (Figs and Nettles), Af>ocynacece 

 (Dogbanes), and Asvlepiadece with no English representative though 

 Asclepias cornuti, called Swallow-wort, is introduced in gardens of 

 late years. All these plants have a more or less milky juice and the 

 plants composing the last family are known as Milkweeds. In India 

 the Milkweeds are nearly all creepers, though the best known mem- 

 ber of it, Calotropis gigantea, common everywhere in the Plains and 

 known by the vernacular name of " akk" or " rui", " madar", is an 

 erect shrub ; never growing to any great height but always con- 

 spicuous by reason of its gregarious habit, its thick leaves and 

 branches covered with a white powder, exuding a copious white milk 

 when torn or wounded, and its purplish flowers. The Dogbanes and 

 Milkweeds are very plentiful in India and few hedges in the country 

 are without a creeping species of one or the other. Hestia cater- 

 pillar has only one foodplant, the apocynaceous species Aganosma 

 corymhosa which is only found in damp hilly jungles : for which 

 reason the butterfly is limited to such localities ; the larva? of the 

 several species of Danais have several foodplants each ; that of 

 Euploea coreta seems to have only one, that of E. kollari has 



