COM}JON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 47 



is called .1. ple.vippus in Soiith's Butterflies of the British Isles 

 ])iit is oertainly different from our Indian Danals plexippus, L. in 

 ajipearanee ; the larvae are also quite distinct. There are thus, with 

 D, chri/sippiis, L. above mentioned, only two members of the whole 

 <ub-family which occur In Europe. 



The danaine egg is dome-shaped, a good deal higher than broatt 

 and has a shiny surface dented all over with little rounded depres- 

 sions, formed by many rather broad ribs from base towards top, joined 

 by numerous smaller ridges at right angles : the ribs do not quite 

 meet on the top of the dome but subside gradually into the gener.il 

 level around a finely reticulated surface in the centre of which is 

 the micropyle or opening through which the fertilisation takes place. 

 The egg is generally laid on the underside of a leaf, always singly 

 but occasionally also on the upperside ; sometimes on a twig or dead 

 stem of a creeper- foodplant, flower-bud, Sec."* 



The larva has been alluded to before as cylindrical in shape with 

 a smooth surface, naked except for the tentacles on two to four of the 

 segments 3, 4, G and 12, those on segments 3 and 12 always being 

 present, and a round, shiny and smooth head marked with bands or 

 spots. The marking of the body is either in transverse bands or :i 

 mixture of spots and such bands. The little caterpillar eats the shell 

 of the egg as its first meal and sits on the underside of a leaf, eating- 

 holes in it, as a rule, instead of beginning from the edge as most 

 larvje do {vide PI. I, fig. 8). 



The chrysalis is characteristic in shape, quite rigid in the abdomi- 

 nal segments, short and dumpy as a rule, longest in Hestia, longer in 

 Danais than in JEuploea, with a slightly humped thorax and is fattest 

 about the middle of the abdomen where there is a distinct rid<ie in 

 Danais in the centre of segment 7 from spiracle to spiracle across 

 the body. Segment 6 is exceptionally long. The colour is generally 

 green in Danais when formed in nature among green leaves, very 

 shiny, ornamented with brown, silver or gold spots and in Euploca 

 often sufi'ased with gold or silver. Of course, the pupa always 

 hangs free by the tail as is the case in all Nymphalidcv (vide PI. I, 

 fig. 8a). 



♦ The IJcftia egg has the intersections of the ribs with the cross-ridges aomewhat 

 raised and knob-like. 



