CO^fMON BUTTERFL TES OF THE PL A INS OF INDIA. 443 



Here again the ocelli on the underside are much more developed 

 in the wet-season forms though these do not differ much in colour 

 from the dry-season insects and there is no shading underneath in 

 either. Medals North Indian, mandata South Indian. There is a 

 sex-mark in the male on the forevving ahove vein J consisting of a fold 

 covered by a pencil of long hairs and on the hindwing on each side of 

 the median vein consisting of two recumbent pencils of hair covering 

 u patch of specialised scales. The larva of mandata is pink with very 

 long thin horns and shorter tail-points and lives on grasses. The 

 pupa is somewhat abnormal resembling that of the Morphince. 



Genus -ELYMNIAS. 



A. Upperside : male, terminal margin of forewmg 



with blue spots ; female, Llack on terminal 

 margin of hindwing not extending along veins. 

 Exp. 2-85"-3-4" undularis. 



B. Upperside : male, terminal margin of forewing 



with white spots ; female, black on terminal 

 margin of hindwing extending along veins. 



^ Exp. 3"4" caudata. 



K These are both jungle insects of the hills, the first North Indian, the 



^^ther South Indian. The larv« are like those of Melanitis but are 

 brilliantly coloured as also are the pup?e. 



The following butterflies are figured in the coloured plates : Mela- 

 nitii i<mene (PI. D, Fig. 22) ; Mycalesis pohjdecta (PI. F, Fig. 37, 

 wet-season and Fig. o7a, dry-season form) ; Lethe nilgiriensu (PI. 

 F, Figs. 38, $ and 38a, 9 ) : Ypthima philomila (PI. F, Fg. 39). 



The Sut'/nnce are, generally speaking, insects of the hills and 

 colder climates, not of the plains and tropics. Very few species occur 

 in the lower hills and open country in India and those that will 

 interest us are confined to half a dozen genera out of the twenty-five 

 mentioned in Colonel Bingham's book. Three of these genera con- 

 tain ninety species of which thirteen only concern us. Out of the 

 twenty species in the foregoing keys the majority are weak on the 

 wing, flying low down near the ground among grasses and under- 

 growth with a slow jerky flight. The genera Melanitis and Lethe, 



I especially the latter, contain insects which are strong and quick on 

 the wing though the style of the flight is the same as that of the 

 weaker ones. They are all f(»nd of shade and are to be met with chiefly 

 in the jungles among the undergrowth and dead leaves, or on the 



