THE COMMON B UTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA . «J45 



green with inlorsal, thoracic, yellow lino, the thoracic, ilorsal diamond-mark 

 being yellow margined with brown ; a lateral, interrupted, yellowish line ; 

 ventriim whitish ; margins of segments 1-2 and 2-3 and the wings show 

 whitish-yellow ; the whole pupa more or less spotted. L: 10 mm.; B: 4* 5 mm 

 at middle, 4 mm, at thorax-apex. 



Habits: — The egg is laid on a flower or in the axilola flower-stalk 

 and the larva at first bores into a flower-bud but afterwards lives 

 outside, generally curled round a bud, feeding on it ; and it is very 

 diflicult to see owing to its patcli}^ colouration. It pupates amongst 

 the flowers or on a flower-stalk, or on a leaf, fixing itself by a body- 

 band and the tail. The larva is not much attended by ants and does 

 not seem to be in awy way dependent on them ; these insects do, how- 

 ever, occasionally visit it — which, of course, besides, is proved by the 

 existence of the gland and extensile organs. The butterfly is a 

 strong flier and frequents the tops of trees rather more than the 

 lower places. The foodplauts of the larva are Wagatea spicata 

 (Leyuminoseoe) and Buchananm latifolla (Anacardiucece), the one an 

 extensive, thorny climber with long spikes of scarlet and yellow 

 flowers known in the vernacular as Wagati ; the other a small tree 

 of not much worth, with large leaves and masses of small, greenish- 

 white flowers when in bloom, called Char or Charoli in marathi and 

 Nurkal in kanavese. Both these plants are often infested with red 

 ants from which may be gathered the fact, as they are so far apart 

 botauicall}" from each other, that the butterfly is guided, in the 

 choice of a place for its eggs, more by the presence of these insects 

 than by the species of the foodplant of the larva, which seems 

 curious considering the casual way in which the ants att%nd the 

 latter. The butterfly is a powerful flier resting on the leaves ot 

 high trees, b;Asks with the wings half opened, sits with them closed 

 over the back in the normal wa}-; is often to be found sucking- 

 moisture from damp places on the ground and is occasionally met 

 with on flowers. It has a wide distribution : Sikkim ; Bengal; Orissa; 

 Western and Southern India ; Ceylon ; Assam ; Burma ; Tenass- 

 erim ; Siam ; the Mala}^ Peninsula and Borneo. It is probably more 

 or less confined to the hills. 



146. Lycaenesthes emolus, Godart. — Male. Upperside : bright, shining pur- 

 ple in certain lights ; duller in others, the wings more romuled on the outer 

 margins than in hjcanina, the tufts of hair at the ends of veins 1-4 of the 

 hind wing less developed ; no appressed, white hair on disc of fore wing but 

 the cell of hind wing and below vein 1 clothed sparsely with such ; the cUia 

 perhaps browner than in lijccenina, otherwise everything as in that species. 

 Underside : darker brown with no lustre, marked with white, transverse lines 

 on the fore wing and black spots in addition on the hind wing. Fore win" : 

 a white line on each side of the discocellulars ; a pair of straight or lunulate. 

 parallel lines, forming a postmedial, outwardly convex band of the same 

 width as the distance between the discocellular pair of lines and about the 

 same distance removed from the outer of these ; in each of the interspace.s 

 1-7, arranged in detail as follows : in interspace 1, both parallel, straight, 

 directed diagonally outwards, in interspace 2 erect, parallel, also straight, in 



