THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. M I 



The larvio feed commonly upon the litMe Indian Wood Sorrel 

 (^Oxalis corniculnla) whicli is very similar to the English species 

 witli its 3-divided, clover-like leaf and little yellow flowers, 

 (lenerally grows in well-sliadod positions, along- ditches, by the 

 sides of water and under trees during- the rains. Here the females 

 may be found most al)inulant, in the afternoons, during the las^t 

 months of the monsoon, intent iipon the business of ovipositing. 

 The males, naturally, also. 



A female was once seen to lay two eggs upon the leaves of a 

 vetch, Teplwsia paucijiora, so that the species is not always abnormal 

 in the choice of the foodplant — the usiial foodplants for other 

 members of the genus are vetches, though Z. h/simon was found 

 feeding also upon the flowers of Nelsonia and Strobilanthes which 

 are acanthaceous plants. If you want to find eggs or larvse of 

 Z. m"ha, however, go to Oxalk and not to vetches. It is waste of 

 time looking for them upon anything else ; for every one egg on 

 vetches — and there are many many species of vetches — you will 

 find a dozen upon Wood Sorrel. The plant belongs to the 

 Geraniacece and rarely grows erect higher than a foot — that is a 

 large specimen, though it creeps along the ground for distances 

 of three feet and more rooting at intervals and producing other 

 erect stems or tufts of stems. The seed-capsule bursts elastically 

 often when touched, freeing the little brown seeds — of course it 

 does this, when siifficiently ripe, of itself, in the same way as do 

 the Balsams which ai'e of the same family. 



136. Zizera lysimon, Huebner. — Male. Uppevside : brown with a more or 

 less dense suffusion of violet. In some specimens the violet colour is more 

 clearly apparent in certain lights than in others and extends further out- 

 wards, but to lesser degree in wet-season specimens than in those taken in 

 the dry weather or in exceptionally dry tracts of country. Fore wing : 

 terminal margin broadly dark brown. Hind wing : costal and terminal 

 margins broadly dark brown. In a few specimens a subterminal series of 

 round, black spots is more or less clearly apparent on the hind wing. 

 Underside : grey. Fore wing : a spot in middle of cell, a short, transverse, 

 lunular line on the discocellulars, and a transverse, anteriorly strongly 

 curved, discal series of eight spots jet-black, the discocellular lunule and 

 the spots each encircled vvith white ; the posterior two spots of the discal 

 series geminate, the three spots above these en echelon placed obliquely ; 

 beyond these are an inner and an outer, transverse, subterminal series 

 of elongate, dusky spots or short lines and an anteciliary black line. Hind 

 wing: a transverse, curved, subbasal line of four well- separated spots, an 

 abbreviated line on the discocellulars and a transverse, highly curved 

 discal series of eight spots, black, followed by an inner series of dusky 

 lunules, an outer subterminal series of round, dusky spots and an antecili- 

 ary, slender, black line. Cilia of both fore and hind wings grey, paler 

 outwardly. Antennae black, shafts ringed with white ; head, thorax and 

 abdomen brownish ; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen sullied white. — 

 Female. Uppeiside : brown with, in a few specimens, the bases of both 

 wings with traces of a violet irroration. In the majority of specimens, 

 however, only the dorsal or posterior half of the hind wing is flushed with 



