648 JOURNAL, BOMBAl NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



with minute, erect hairs and ghibroiis, fiat tubercles ; a small, depression 

 laterally in centre of each abdominal segment ; the gland-scar is linear, large, 

 transverse. The spiracles of segment 2 are very narrow, slightly raised, 

 rather long and whitish in colour — not very conspicuous : the rest roundly 

 oval, flush, white, rather conspicuous. Colour varies from blackish pink to 

 green with the thorax varying from pinkish green to green ; on the pos- 

 terior slope of the thorax, dorsally is a very conspicuous diamond-shaped 

 mark extemling from the apex to the hinder margin, light brown in colour 

 with a broad, brown border ; a dark dorsal, longitudinal line on abdomen, 

 a lateral row of black spots, one to each little lateral depression and some 

 small black dots — generally 3 — immediately below each spiracle. In one 

 green pupa the diamond on the thorax was rustly pinkish with a yellow 

 dorsal line from its apex to anterior margin of thorax ; another one was 

 green with a darker green, abdominal, dorsal line ; the green of abdomen 

 rather yellowish in hue; wings light; ventrum pale; lateral abdominal 

 depression sometimes touched with black, sometimes not ; shoulder-points, 

 ditto. L : 15 mm B : 4 mm. 



Another larva was rather dark, bright yellow-green with a dark green 

 dorsal line from segment 3 to segment 14, flanked by a violet tinged, broad 

 band which, in its turn, was flanked by a dark green, broad, lateral line ; 

 round the gland : reddish purple. 



Habits I — The eggs are laid, generally singly, on the under- 

 sides of the fresh young leaves of the foodplaut Saraca indica 

 or Ashok ; these yoiihg leaves hang down limply from the young 

 branches and twio-s and are often stuck together bv their fresh, 

 moist surfaces, delicate pink in colour, deeper on the underside 

 than on the upper, and are nearly always the resort of red ants 

 (Ecophylla smaragdina, which invariablj^ attend the larvfe. These 

 latter live on the undersides of the leaves, often half a dozen of dif- 

 ferent ages together and eat the substance irregularly in holes and 

 patches ; they exude a copious juice from their large glands and 

 the ants lap it up wicfi considerable energy and celerity. They are 

 sluggish larva3 and stick tight to their leaves even when touched, 

 trusting, possibly, in their immunity from ordinary enemies which 

 the}^ enjoy through the presence of their defenders, the ants. Ked 

 ants 65?. masse are never pleasant customers to tackle. 



The above foodplant, a well-known small tree where it occurs, is 

 confined to cool jungles and evergreens, being very plentiful along 

 water courses in the hilly parts of the Western Ghats in Kanara and 

 elsewhere. It is a striking object when' in bloom as the flowers are 

 arrayerl all along the branches — sometimes even on the stems — in 

 dense, orange, yellow and red clusters and are at times so numerous, 

 as to produce an absolute blaze of colour against the backgi'ound of 

 dark green leaves and sombre grey stems which form their usual set- 

 ting. Place numbers of these trees along the banks of a silver-rip- 

 pling stream under a dense overhead canopy of giant stems in a deej) 

 ravine with the clear water sparkling and playing over a 

 shallow bed of pebbles and many coloured gravels to an insistent 

 music of gentle gurgles and lonely little splashing noises amidst a 

 mysterious surrounding of dark corners and dead silence and — there 



