COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 453 



Spiracles of segment 2 linear, yellow ; rest oval, light and small. Surface of pupa 

 is smooth and somewhat shiny. Colour grass-green ; dorsal wing-margin conti- 

 nued to points of head over the shoulders are yellow, sometimes golden ; apex 

 of thorax yellow ; a subdorsal tubercular mark on segments 5-9 small, conical, 

 yellow. L. 18 mm. : B. 7mm. The pupa may be rosy brown like the larva. 



Habits. — The egg is laid singly on the under side of a leaf though 

 it is the rule to find two or three adjacent leaves with one each. The 

 young larva eats the shell and afterwards always stays full-stretched 

 on the under surface with its belly closely applied and its face bent 

 down so as to bring the head-points to project straight forward in a 

 line with the body. The larva is then not at all easy to make out 

 ])eino- of a similar shade of o-reen to the leaf. The larvee are srene- 

 rally to be found on leaves within two or three feet of the ground in 

 shady places. They feed on bamboo and seems to prefer the big 

 thorny one, Bambusa arundinacecB. The butterfly is confined to 

 South India and Ceylon but is extremely plentiful in the jungles of 

 the Western Ghats in Belgaum and Kanara and probably, therefore, 

 further north where the conditions are similar as regards climate. It 

 is a swifter flier than the preceding species and is found just as much 

 above the ghats as below, in hilly places and on the flat in equal 

 numbers. It does not visit flowers but is very fond of toddy and 

 sap-juices. 



17. Lethe Nilgiriensis, Guerin {^\. F. , figs. 38^, 38a9).— Male and 

 female : uppershle vandyke-brown, slightly darker, especially in the female, 

 towards apex of fore wing. Male : forewing with a costal and two preapical 

 spots white as well as a fourth in interspace 2 towards the termen. Hind wing : 

 the ocelli of the underside showing through, sometimes forming two or three 

 obscure black spots ; two slender subtei-minal black lines. Underside paler, 

 shaded with dark-brown. Forewing : narrow sub-basal and outer cellular trans- 

 verse sinuous white lines ; an irregular broad discal and a narrower postdiscal 

 band white, forming a V, the latter bearing a series of four blind, dusky-black, 

 fulvous- ringed ocelli ; the two preapical white spots as on the upperside ; dis- 

 tinct slender subterminal whitish and broader terminal ochreous line. Hind- 

 wing: a sub-basal, transverse, sinuous light band bordered whitish ; a postdiscal 

 arched series of six black ocelli, their centres disintegrated, their inner ring 

 ochraceous, outer brown and the whole series bordered inwardly and outward- 

 ly by lilacine-white lines ; finally the same subterminal whitish and terminal 

 ochreous lines as on forewing. Female : upperside differs in having a broad, 

 oblique, white discal band on forewing divided into three distinct spots. Under- 

 side as in the male but the markings more pronounced, the white discal band 

 continuous. Exp. 64-66mm. 



