662 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TUBAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



indicating the nervures on wings ; cremaster brown. L : 20 mm.; B : 7 mm. at 

 broadest part. 



Habits. — The egg is laid in ii sunny place on the npperside of a 

 leaflet and the little larva, on emerging, immediately proceeds to 

 make a bed of silk for itself on the npperside of the same or another 

 leaflet to which it returns after feeding each time ; when it grows too 

 large for one bed it makes another, soon requiring three or four or 

 more leaflets to rest upon ; it often rests with its legs and the pseudo- 

 legs on each side of the central pair as well as the claspers oiF the 

 surface, the true legs bunched, head held with the horns thrown back 

 and the pseudo-legs all contracted : it hits with its horns when teased 

 and moves with a halting motion spreading abundance of silk. The 

 type of colouring : green with diagonal parallel white or light colour- 

 ed lines acts protectively, reproducing the effect of the Acacia leaf 

 with its leaflets. The pupa is formed under a leaf or from a stalk or 

 twig and hangs firmly, somewhat rigidly. The imago is somewhat 

 variable in the breadth and shade of the discal band, in the darker or 

 lighter shade of the general colouration and in size, due somewhat to 

 season, also to locality. Consequently three or four species have been 

 made out of the one by different authors. The insect extends through- 

 out the Himalayas and in the hills of Central India ; throughout the 

 rest of India in suitable places ; Assam, Burma, into the Malayan 

 snb-region. It is plentiful round Bombay and in the Deccan in the' 

 wooded parts, for it is more of a forest insect than (7*. fahius ; it has 

 much the same flight as that insect but keeps nearer the ground, 

 flying along the edges of glades in the jungles, along walks, paths. &c., 

 where it may be found basking low down near the ground on a leaf of 

 a shrub or small tree in the sun. The females are much more rarely 

 met with than the males, because of different habits already referred 

 to under Ch. imiia. Neither sex visits flowers but sucks the sap ol 

 trees and fruits, are attracted by carrion and high-smelling substances, 

 and the males may be found sitting in moist spots on roads and in the 

 beds of nallas on hot sunny days imbibing water from the soil. The 

 food-plants of the larva may be said to be all Leguminosece, though a 

 caterpillar was once found on a species of Grewia. Known fnod-plants- 

 are Poincianaregia^ Bojer, or Gold Mohur ; Acacia pennatu. Willd. 

 and ^1. ccesia, Lam., both species of climbing Acacia with thorns ; 

 and the thornless tree Albizzia lebhek^ Benth., known as Siras, 



