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



on segments 3, 4. 5. Colour of pupa is dull chestnut marked with whitish and 

 greyish in places rather obscurely ; surface of wings very dark : border of wings 

 and antennte black ; some black lines on wings ; a ventral white chain-mark 

 down centre of abdomen. L : 24mni.; B : 11mm. at segment 7 ; at shoulders : 

 7-5mm.; across base of head-processes : 7mm.; L. of head-processes : 2*5mm. 



Habits. — The egg is laid at the point of a leaf; the young larva, 

 emerging, proceeds to eat the point, leaving the midrib untouched, in 

 a straight line at right angles to that midrib, throwing up a rampart 

 of its droppings and web along the eaten edge, thus separating the 

 free midrib trom the leaf-surface. On this rib the larva sits, general- 

 ly slightly curled, and resembles the rampart so perfectly in coloura- 

 tion and, to a certain extent, in general aspect, that it is easily over- 

 looked. The very young larva prolongs the miilrib by adding 

 particles of exci-ement to the point of it. It sticks to this method of 

 protection until the last stage, changing the leaf of course occasionally 

 if necessary. It generally goes to other leaves for food after the first 

 two stages but occasionally dines off the edges of its own particular 

 one. In the last stage it wanders about, being no longer so inconspi- 

 cuously coloured and may be found in the middle of a leaf anywhere 

 on the plant or tree when at rest. Even in this last stage, however, 

 it looks very like a bird-dropping at times when sitting with its head 

 bent back on its side, which is a favourite resting position. The 

 larva may even rest on the underside of a leaf in this last stage. 

 It wanders a little prior to pupation and finally fixes itself on to 

 the under surface of some leaf where it spins a copious wad 

 of silk to hang by. The pupa is fixed very rigidly to this 

 wad and hangs quite perpendicularly though with the body generally 

 somewhat curved and resembles much a freshly withered, red-brown, 

 rolled leaf or leaf-portion. The pupa is occasionally attached to 

 a perpendicular stem or branch. There are generally two 

 or three, sometimes even as many as a dozen larvse on a single tree. 

 The butterfly is a strong flyer with the habits ot the Athyma group 

 {Pantoporia, Athyma, Limenitis), that is it holds its wings horizontal, 

 sailing along for short intervals ; is fond of the sunlight and there- 

 fore frequents dry hill sides in the jungly parts of the country where 

 the monsoon jis heavy. The males are as commonly seen as the 

 females. Its distribution is Peninsular India in regions of heavy 

 eainfall ; Assam ; Burma and Tenasserim, extending into the Malayan 



