638 JOUHyAL. BOMBAY NATURAL RIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



tended by ants of the geniis Vrenolepis, probabl}- also by others ; 

 but the imagines always seem to choose plants with ants on them 

 for ovipositing. It was noticed that, in Sind, a species of the 

 hymenopteroiTS genus Ammofhila takes large toll of these caterpillars 

 to bury in the ground in burrows prepared for the purpose. The 

 wasp stores a certain number at the bottom of the hole, lays one egg 

 amongst them when it judges there are sufficient to satisfy the 

 resulting grub and then closes up the passage with earth, always 

 finished off, to more effectually hide the mouth or opening (?) wdth 

 a small piece of stone or shell. The butterfly is one of the very 

 smallest of the Lyca'nida', easily distinguished from all others by 

 the prominent, marginal row of 3-6 more or less round, black spots 

 on the underside of the hindvving, each spot speckled with metallic- 

 green. It inhabits desert tracts and regions of heavj^ rainfall, 

 jungles and open countrj^, plains and hills, but does not seem to 

 occur at any great elevation. It is a weak-fljdng insect and never 

 rises an}' great distance from the ground, it settles frequently on 

 low herbage, diligently visits flowers and rests in the usual manner 

 with closed wings but sits often with them well opened basking in 

 the sun. It is fond of open spaces wherever it occurs and loves the 

 sun at all times. The foodplant of the larva is Lotus corniculaius . 

 De Niceville also gives Heliotropum strkjosuw which often grows 

 with Jjotus. The distribution of the insect is : throughout British 

 India; South-eastern Europe; Africa; Arabia; Central Asia; and 

 through the Malayan Sub-region to Australia. 



143. Chiiades laius, Cramer. — Wet season brood. — Male Upperside : bluish 

 purple. Fore wing : base and basal half of costa flushed with pale blue 

 costa and termen edged by a slender dark brownish-black even line, beyond 

 which along the termen the cilia are brown at base, white outwardly. 

 Hind wing : costa somewhat broadly dusky black ; a slender black cons- 

 picuous anticiliary line, beyond which the cilia are white traversed medially 

 by a brown line ; dorsum broadly pale brown, two subterminal pale bord- 

 ered black spots in interspace 1, and one similar spot in interspace 2, 

 often obsolescent and barely indicated. Underside: grey. Fore wing : a 

 transverse broad hinule on the discocellulars and a transverse discal 

 series of six spots dark brown, the lunule and each of the discal spots 

 edged with white ; the posterior four spots of the discal series elongate 

 and each obliquely placed, the anterior two round and curved inwards ; 

 a subterminal series of transverse elongate spots with an inner series of 

 lunviles dusky brown, both series edged inwardly and outwardly with 

 white ; finally, an anticiliary slender black line. Cilia white, medially 

 traversed by a dark brown line. Hind wing : the following jet-black spots 

 slenderly encircled with Ytfliite : — a transverse subbasal series of four and 

 a subcostal spot somewhat larger than the others in the middle of inter- 

 space 7 : below the latter a catenulated line of slenderly white-edged 

 dusky-brown spots, including the lunular spot on the discocellulars, 

 crosses the wing, and beyond these opposite the apex of the cell are three 

 similar discal • spots, the middle one elongate ; the terminal markings 

 consist of an inner continuous subterminal series of dusky lunules, bordered 

 inwardly and outwardly with white, an outer subterminal series of 



